pregnant. Please don’t look for me…”
For years, he hired investigators. Followed false leads. Chased ghosts.
He never married. Never loved anyone again without feeling like he was betraying a memory.
And now, a girl with Lianne’s ring had appeared—selling bread in the rain.
The search
The next day, Adrian called a discreet man—one who didn’t ask questions.
“Find Cecilia. But carefully. Don’t scare her. She must know nothing.”
Three days felt like three months. Then the report came:
Cecilia lived on the outskirts of Vigan with her mother. Her mother worked cleaning houses, was sick. The registered last name: Velasco. There was a photo.
Cecilia was smiling. And she had Lianne’s eyes.
Adrian didn’t wait.
He arrived at the small house on a cloudy afternoon. Dirt road, puddles, chickens pecking between scraps of metal— but also flowers: bougainvillea climbing the fence, white roses in improvised pots. He knocked on the wooden door.
“You’re… the man from the bread,” Cecilia whispered.
“Yes… I need to speak with your mother.”
Then Lianne appeared—thinner, older, her face marked by years of struggle. Her eyes met his, and the world seemed to disappear again.
“Adrian…” she whispered.
“Why didn’t you ever come back?” His voice broke.
Lianne told him everything: the fear, the threats, the illness—cancer.
Adrian knelt in front of her, holding her cold hands.
“You had no right,” he said through tears. “I’ve been dead inside for sixteen years… and she… she is our daughter.”
Cecilia covered her mouth. The ring caught the soft light inside the house.
“I’m Adrian,” he said gently. “And if you allow me… I’m your father.”
Cecilia took a hesitant step toward him. Lianne sobbed.
“You were never a tragedy,” Adrian said. “You were the best thing that ever happened to me. And if life is giving us a second chance… I won’t waste it.”
Healing
Adrian moved mountains. He transferred Lianne to the best hospital in Manila, arranged treatments, experimental therapies, medications.
Little by little, Cecilia and Adrian began to build a relationship. She loved studying, making crafts, reading passionately.
Months later, the doctor smiled.
The tumor was shrinking.
Lianne cried. Adrian held her. Cecilia wrapped her arms around both of them.
They later married in a small, intimate ceremony. Lianne wore the same ring. Cecilia was the maid of honor, wearing a soft blue dress that matched the gemstone.
Adrian kissed Lianne and whispered,
“Forever.”
“It was always forever,” she replied.
Home at last
They eventually moved near the sea, to a quiet town in Palawan. Cecilia had a bedroom overlooking the water, a scholarship at a good school, and Adrian learned the simple things he had missed all his life: driving her to class, listening to her stories, being present.
One evening, watching the sunset on the terrace, Lianne said softly,
“Can you imagine… if you hadn’t stepped out of the car that day?”
“I don’t like to think about it,” Adrian replied.
Cecilia ran barefoot along the shore, laughing, the ring catching the golden light.
“Forever,” Adrian whispered.
“Forever,” Lianne answered.
For the first time in sixteen years, Adrian finally felt that he was home.