Chapter 15
The moment Jean got home, he headed straight to the bedroom. He yanked open the bedside drawer and there it was. The divorce agreement.
He picked it up slowly, flipping through the pages with a blank expression. The signature was his. No doubt about it. It wasn’t a joke. It had really happened.
And if this agreement was real… then maybe Samira had been given the second chance too. That would mean she wasn’t dead. No one walks into death twice if they know how it ends.
He stood there in silence, scanning the room: Something felt off. He moved around the house, opening drawers and cabinets, checking shelves and then he saw it. A bunch of things were gone.
The jewelry he gave her. The photo frame from their trip. The scarf she once said she couldn’t live without. All missing. She hadn’t just left. She had planned it.
His chest tightened with a strange, desperate hope. Death wasn’t the end of her story. It was just the exit.”
Without wasting a second, he pulled out his phone and made a call. Find her he said, “Do whatever it takes.“”
The search began the next day. But the news about Samira’s death had already leaked. When people saw Jean running around asking questions, they thought he had finally lost it
Even Miranda came by, gently urging him to let it go. “She’s gone, Jean,” she said softly. “You have to stop.”
But he didn’t. He couldn’t. He didn’t explain anything. Let them think what they wanted, he knew the truth. He would find her and they would see.
Days tumed into weeks. A whole month passed and still nothing. She had vanished, changed her name, maybe even her face. She could be anywhere. Maybe he had never find her again.
On the 31st day. Jean packed a small bag and headed to the one place that felt like a last shot: the hometown of Samira’s biological parents. He didn’t expect much, but maybe, just maybe, she would be there.
That night after the party, Samira arrived in that quiet little town by train, It was remote and slow–paced, like stepping back in time.X After the train, she took a long, winding bus ride deeper into the countryside.”
It was the place where her parents had once lived, where she should’ve grown up. Years ago, the Jourdain Family had handed her a key and an address here, telling her she could return if she ever wanted to know her roots.
The old house hadn’t been touched in years. Dust coated everything like a second skin. Samira dropped her bags and got to work, rolling up her sleeves and cleaning until the sun started to dip low.
ry to visit the graves o
By late afternoon, she headed out to grab a few essentials, then made her way to the cemetery got to meet.
graves of the parents she never
Ever since Luna returned to the Jourdain Family, no one had taken care of this grave. The grass had grown wild, nearly as tall as her Samira spent a while pulling weeds and clearing things out. When it looked a little less forgotten, she knelt down and placed a bunch of fresh flowers at the headstone. She didn’t say anything. Just sat there in silence.
Her feelings toward her birth parents were. tangled.
She had hated them for allong time. If they hadn’t secretly swapped her all those years ago, maybe her life wouldn’t have ended up so broken. But then again, because of that decision, she got to live comfortably for more than a decade. Maybe even happily for a while. Love could be generous. But it could also be selfish
They had done what they thought was best. And in a way, she understood that now. Still, if she could rewind time, she would’ve chosen different path, one where they never swapped her, one where she never met Jean, never fell into that storm of love and loss
With a sigh, she brushed off the last leaf from the grave and stood up. Without looking back, she walked down the overgrown path. Dying once and running away had drained her completely. She didn’t know what came next. She just wanted to disappear somewhere. quiet. So she came here.
She kept to herself, barely spoke to anyone. Most days she just stayed home, alone. One afternoon, she was coming back from the market, arms full of groceries, when someone suddenly called out her name, “Samira?
She froze and turned around, confused. Her eyes widened in surprise. It was someone she hadn’t seen in years. “Yosel?” she blinked. Yosef Harlow, her old senior from the university student union, was walking toward her with the same warm smile he used to have back then. “Wow, it really is you! What are you doing here?“X
“This is my
hometown,” she said, still trying to wrap her head around it. “What about you? Why are you here?”
This town was tiny and remote, not the kind of place she would expect to run into someone like Yosef, whose family was well–off and from the city.
As they walked and caught up, he told her he had been volunteering here for the past six months, helping with agricultural projects and rural development. He loved it, surprisingly
By the time they reached her apartment building, he was still holding her grocery bags. At the entrance, he handed them back, smiling politely. Till let you go up, but hey, want to exchange numbers? Just in case you ever need anything.“B
Samira hesitated, then nodded. “Sure.”
Over the next few days, Yosef started messaging her. Sometimes just to say hi, other times inviting her out for a walk or coffee. And
It was kind of nice
734 PM c
honestly, it was kind of nice.
She had nothing going on and staying shut in all day wasn’t doing her any favors. So when he asked, she started saying yes…
At the very least, it felt good to have someone around again
Back in school, Samira and Yosef had always gotten along well. But after she married Jean, she slowly lost touch with most of her friends, including him,
Now, after a few weeks of spending time together again, it felt like nothing had changed, they slipped right back into their old rhythm One afternoon, Yosef went out to help the local farmers and Samira, with nothing better to do, wandered out to the fields too.
She ended up sitting on the grassy edge of a ridge, lazily playing with a scruffy little dog that belonged to one of the nearby families. It was one of those peaceful, quiet moments that made her forget the mess she had left behind.X
She was smiling, completely absorbed in petting the dog, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a warm, firm hand grabbed her waist from behind. The touch was so sudden and intense, it made her whole body jolt.
