Chapter 10

Another Valentine's Day, I found myself drawn back to that beach.

To my surprise, Sophia stood where I had once planned to propose, staring out at the ocean alone.

"I knew you'd come." She spoke softly, not turning around.

I stood silently beside her.

"James, I've been thinking lately… if I hadn't made that wish on the shooting star that night, what would our lives be like now?"

"There are no what-ifs, Sophia. Only what happened."

She smiled faintly. "You sound like the old you. Practical. Grounded."

"I am the old me. I never changed."

"No. You didn't." She turned to face me. The weight she'd lost made her cheekbones sharper, but her eyes were clearer than I'd seen them in years. "I changed. And I'm trying to find my way back."

"Back to what?"

"Not to you. I know I don't get that. Back to me. The me that existed before the fame, before Alexander, before I confused attention with love."

She reached into her coat and pulled out a small envelope.

"I wrote you a letter. Old-fashioned, I know. But phones feel dishonest now."

I took it but didn't open it.

"I'm not asking for anything," she said quickly. "No chances, no do-overs. I just wanted you to know that the girl who made you that promise—the one who wished on a shooting star—she's still in here somewhere."

She pressed her hand against her own heart.

"And she's sorry. Every single day."

We stood together for a while, watching the waves. Two people who had shared everything and now shared nothing but a stretch of sand.

"I should go," she said at last.

"Sophia."

She paused.

"The acting," I said. "Don't give it up."

Her eyes widened.

"You were brilliant before Alexander. You'll be brilliant after him. Don't let one bad chapter end the whole story."

Tears gathered, but she held them. Nodded once. And walked away.

That night, alone in my apartment, I opened the letter.

Inside was a single sentence, written in the same shaky handwriting from eight years ago, when she'd inscribed the back of my two-hundred-dollar watch:

"You were the best part of every version of me. I'm sorry I forgot."

I folded the letter, placed it inside the watch case, and closed it.

Some things are worth keeping. Even after the story ends.