Love Fades With Bygone Days Chapter 12
Alessia was the one who filed for divorce.
Tomas didn’t contest it. They went straight to the courthouse and signed the papers.
As they parted ways, Alessia said softly, “If you ever see Esme, tell her I’m sorry.”
“Whether she forgives me or not, she will always be my best friend.”
Tomas nodded and turned away.
A few weeks later, he saw me in a colleague’s Instagram story.
The guy had posted a simple landscape photo from a trip.
And there, in the corner of the picture, was a woman’s back.
He recognized me instantly.
He booked the first flight to New Zealand, a red-eye that left that night.
When he landed in Auckland, it was early morning.
He stood on a foreign street, holding up his phone with the screenshot.
It was the only clue he had.
In the photo, I was standing by a lake, my back to the camera.
The wind was lifting my hair, and I was wearing a blue dress.
He’d never seen that dress before.
In that moment, it hit him: after leaving him, I had actually started a new life.
The thought was a punch to the gut.
He stayed in New Zealand for three days.
He went to Queenstown and then to Christchurch.
He visited every landmark mentioned in the travel guides.
He showed my photo to passersby, to shopkeepers, to an old man selling ice cream on a street corner.
No one had seen me.
On the evening of the third day, he was sitting in a cafe in Wellington, on the verge of giving up.
His phone lit up.
It was a text from Alessia.
She said Leo had a fever and was asking for him. Could he video call for a little while?
