The First Step Away
For days, the shoreline felt strangely quiet.
Oriana waited every morning at the curve of the beach where Tavian usually appeared with his warm smile and restless energy. She waited with her heart beating anxiously, her fingers twisting the hem of her dress, listening for footsteps that never came.
The waves greeted her.
The wind whispered to her.
But Tavian did not.
Not on the first day.
Not on the second.
Not on the third.
By the fourth day, Oriana's chest felt so heavy she could barely breathe. Whispers trickled through the town half-truths carried by those who never missed a chance to gossip.
"I heard his family forbade him from seeing her."
"They said she embarrassed them."
"Vionna has been with them every day."
Each whisper cut her deeper.
Grandma Gina saw Oriana sitting outside the hut one evening, hugging her knees to her chest, looking small and broken against the fading sunset.
"My child," her grandmother said gently, lowering herself beside her, "love is a flame. Sometimes it warms, sometimes it burns. You must be strong either way."
Oriana swallowed hard. "Grandmother, why hasn't he come? Did I do something wrong?"
"No," Grandma Gina whispered firmly. "But life tests us in ways we do not expect."
Oriana looked out at the sea with tear-filled eyes. "I just want to know why."
On the fifth day, just as dawn stretched its golden fingers across the sand, someone knocked at their fragile wooden door.
A soft but familiar knock.
One Oriana knew by heart.
She froze.
Grandma Gina looked at her knowingly, then nodded for her to open the door.
Hands trembling, Oriana stepped forward and pulled it open.
There he was.
Tavian.
But not the Tavian she knew, not the man full of enthusiasm, fire, and boyish charm. This Tavian looked exhausted, torn apart, shadows bruising the space beneath his eyes. He looked like a man who had not slept, a man fighting a battle no one else could see.
"Tavian" Oriana breathed.
His lips parted, but no words came.
Instead, a painful silence settled between them.
Oriana's heart began to race. "Why… Why haven't you come? I waited. I thought"
Tavian looked away, his jaw clenched tight. "Oriana, I shouldn't have come today. But I couldn't leave without"
Her stomach dropped. "Without what?"
He swallowed hard. "Saying goodbye."
The word goodbye slammed into Oriana's chest so hard she stumbled back a step.
"No," she whispered. "No, no, no. Don't say that. Don't do this."
Tavian closed his eyes, as if her tears were knives cutting into him. "I have to."
"Why?" Her voice cracked, desperate. "Why now? Why after everything? After you promised you would stand by me?"
He ran a shaking hand through his hair, pacing like a man trapped. "My family is furious. They think I've disgraced them. My father threatened to cut ties with me entirely if I keep seeing you. My mother hasn't eaten in days. Vionna is stirring everything like poison. The entire estate is a battlefield."
He finally looked at her, tears shining in his eyes.
"I'm losing everyone, Oriana. And I… I don't know what to do."
Oriana stepped toward him, shaking. "Then fight for me. Fight for us. Don't leave me like this."
Tavian's face crumpled. "I have fought. More than you know. But I am only one man, Oriana. And my father collapsed from stress two nights ago. The doctor says he's not well. I can't… I can't abandon them now."
"But you can abandon me?" she whispered brokenly.
His breath caught. "Oriana don't say that."
She stepped closer, eyes overflowing. "Then don't go."
She grabbed his shirt with trembling hands, bunching the fabric in her fists.
"Please, Tavian," she cried, her voice raw, cracking like waves against stone. "Don't leave me. Don't walk away. You said I was everything. You said you loved me. You can't"
Her words dissolved into sobs as she buried her face in his chest, clutching him as if her life depended on it.
Tavian's hands shook as he held her head gently, his own tears falling into her hair. "I do love you. More than anything. But love is not enough against the world I come from. I am being pulled apart, Oriana. Pulled so hard I feel I will break in half."
"Then let me hold the other half," she pleaded. "Let me stay with you. Let me help you. Just… just don't go."
Tavian looked at her like a man drowning, desperate to breathe.
"I'm sorry."
It was the softest whisper.
But it was the deadliest blow.
"No," Oriana cried, gripping him tighter. "You can't leave me like this. Please, Tavian, don't go. I need you. I"
He gently pried her hands from his shirt, his fingers shaking violently as he did.
Oriana fought him, sobbing harder. "No! Don't let go of me! Please!"
"Oriana" His voice cracked into pieces. "If I stay one more minute, I won't have the strength to walk away at all."
Then he stepped back.
One step.
Two steps.
Oriana's knees buckled, and she fell to the sand, reaching out for him with shaking hands.
"Tavian! Please! Don't go! Don't leave me!"
Her cries sliced through him like a blade.
He turned away, tears falling freely down his cheeks, and forced himself to walk.
Each step felt like dragging his heart through fire.
He didn't dare look back.
Because he knew
if he saw her on her knees, reaching for him, tears streaming down her face
he would never leave at all.
Grandma Gina rushed to Oriana's side, pulling the trembling girl into her arms as her sobs shook her entire body.
"My child" she whispered, her voice breaking for the first time in years. "Let the pain come. Let it break you. And then let it make you stronger."
Oriana could barely breathe, choking on heartbreak.
"He left me," she sobbed. "He left me."
Above them, the sun climbed into the sky, shining cruelly on a world that felt suddenly empty.
And in the distance, Tavian walked away from the beach from Oriana, from love, and from the only peace he had ever known, stepping back into the life that demanded everything and gave nothing in return.