Liam had faced storms before all this scandals, betrayals, headlines that spun lies into legends. But nothing had prepared him for the silence Irina left behind.
She was simply gone and all the memories he couldn't drown no matter how many sleepless nights or staged smiles he forced. He searched quietly at first, then desperately, he even went to Dmitri but he gave him nothing.
Irina's family closed ranks and her social media went dark. She'd erased herself like a ghost trained to vanish.
Months passed.
He canceled films, sold the mansion and moved out of the city. Anything that reminded him of her became unbearable, yet he couldn't move on. Not really, not when he still heard her laugh in the quiet moments or when the last thing she wrote.. said —Don't look for me, it kept playing on loop like a curse.
Then one morning in late autumn, a tabloid photo surfaced.
It was blurry, like it was taken from a distance, but he knew that silhouette standing on a remote beach in Northern California.
The way she tilted her head against the wind, her profile was sharp but it was sad and unmistakable Irina.
Maybe she hadn't disappeared completely after all.
He dropped everything and went toward her.
The beach was nearly empty when he arrived and the wind tangled his hair, the sand soaked into his shoes but in all… she was there, wrapped in a pale sweater, barefoot and was standing at the edge of the tide.
"Irina," he said again walking closer to her. "I looked for you everywhere."
She turned slowly, her face so sad and she looks older somehow, but still achingly beautiful. "You weren't supposed to."
"I know." His voice cracked. "But I did."
They stood in silence as the waves kept lapping at their feet, the wind between them like a third presence was restless and seems uncertain.
"I saw the headlines," she said finally. "They got their story. You're clean again and your career's was recovering until you stopped. So I wasn't the one ruining it."
"I never needed the spotlight," he said, stepping closer. "I needed you."
She flinched. "I thought disappearing was the only way to protect you."
"You didn't even say goodbye."
"I dropped a note, I couldn't tell you in person." Her throat went sour. "If I had, I wouldn't have left."
He studied her for few seconds before speaking. "Then why stay away? For months? You didn't even let me explain, or fight for us."
"I was scared," she admitted. "Scared that everything between us was built on a lie. That if I stayed, you'd resent me, that you'd wake up one day and see me the way they did."
"Irina…" He reached for her hand. "I was angry and hurt. But I never hated you, you made me feel alive again, you're not just part of my story, you are the story."
Her eyes brimmed with tears. "I watched you on that stage, defending me when no one else would, that's when I knew I had to go. If I stayed, they'd destroy you to punish me."
"And what about you?" he asked softly. "Who protected you?"
"No one." A tear slipped down her cheek. "But I survived."
Liam exhaled shakily. "Then let me protect you now."
She hesitated. "You still want me? After everything?"
"I don't want perfect, Irina. I want real and I've never felt more alive, more real, than I did with you."
Then she stepped forward and pressed her forehead to his chest.
"I never stopped loving you," she whispered. "But will you ever forgive me?"
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her like something sacred. "Only if you promise never to run again."
She nodded into his chest, and for the first time in a long while, they both felt whole.
THE END.