**Chapter 1: The Girl by the Sea**
Every morning, Elara walked the same path to the cliffs, her paint-stained fingers brushing the tall grass as the wind whispered through her hair. Locals often saw her sitting silently by the old bench overlooking the ocean, eyes lost on the horizon as if waiting for someone who never came.
To strangers, she was the town's gifted painter — the woman who captured sunlight on canvas like no one else. But those who had lived here long enough knew better. They saw it in her silence, in the way her smile faded too quickly.
In her small seaside home, unfinished canvases leaned against every wall. She painted, then stopped — always starting, rarely finishing. Something was missing.
Ten years had passed since he left, but the memory of Theo lingered like salt in the air — ever-present, invisible, and impossible to wash away.
She hadn't spoken his name aloud in years. But every autumn, when the air grew cooler and the leaves blushed red, her steps grew heavier.
And still, she returned to the sea.
Always to the same bench.
Always with the hope — no matter how faint — that maybe, just maybe, he would return.