Will had always believed that Luna was the one person in his life who would never leave without a trace. From the moment they met at Forrester Creations, their connection had been instant, intense, and undeniable. Luna brought a spark into his life that he hadn’t felt in years—an intoxicating mix of mystery and warmth that drew him closer day by day. But nothing could have prepared him for the moment he found the letter she left behind, folded neatly on the edge of his desk like a final goodbye wrapped in silence.

He sensed something was wrong even before he picked it up. Luna had been distant the last few days, flinching at every unexpected sound, casting furtive glances over her shoulder, and forcing smiles that never reached her eyes. Will had assumed it was pressure from work or another typical family complication—something that could be fixed with a conversation, a hug, or even a quiet night away from the chaos. Instead, the truth was far more devastating.

When he slid his thumb under the envelope flap and unfolded the letter, his heart stuttered. Luna’s handwriting, soft and looping, carried tremors that betrayed the turmoil she must have felt while writing it. The first line alone struck him like a blow: “Will, by the time you read this, I’ll be gone.” His breath caught as he struggled to understand. Gone? Gone where? Gone why? His mind raced, but the letter forced him to move slowly, to absorb each word like a painful needle pressing deeper into his chest.

Luna explained that secrets from her past had caught up to her—secrets she had tried desperately to outrun. She wrote about people who had threatened her before she ever stepped foot in Los Angeles, people who now knew exactly where to find her. She insisted she couldn’t risk bringing danger into Will’s life, nor into the lives of those connected to him. The letter carried more emotion than she had ever allowed herself to show: fear, regret, longing, and the unmistakable ache of a love she felt she didn’t deserve.

Will read the letter twice, then three times, hoping he had misunderstood something. But every word remained the same, every sentence tearing at him with the cruel clarity of truth. Luna had left not because she didn’t care, but because she cared too much. She believed that disappearing was the only way to protect him—an act of sacrifice that only deepened the wound she left behind.

His hands trembled as he ran them through his hair, pacing the room like a trapped animal. Questions flooded his mind in rapid succession. Why hadn’t she told him? Why didn’t she trust him to help her? Had she been scared of his judgment? Or worse—had she believed he would choose not to stand by her? The thought crushed him. If Luna truly thought she had to face this alone, then he had failed her in ways he never realized.

He tore through the office searching for clues—something, anything—that might reveal where she went. Her purse was gone. Her sketches were missing. Even the small silver bracelet she always wore, the one he once fastened around her wrist during a quiet moment, had disappeared. It was as though she had erased every piece of herself from the space they once shared.

But the more Will searched, the more he noticed the small details she had overlooked. A perfume bottle on the vanity. A scribbled note in her planner. A faint lipstick stain on a discarded napkin. These fragments of Luna felt like a puzzle he was determined to solve. He refused to accept that she was simply gone forever.

The letter continued with warnings—cryptic lines about people watching, listening, waiting. She pleaded with him not to look for her, claiming that his involvement would only make things worse. But Will knew himself. There was no universe where he could walk away from someone he loved in their time of greatest need. Protecting Luna had become as natural to him as breathing, and he refused to let fear—and certainly not hidden enemies—dictate her fate.

He remembered moments that now carried new meaning: Luna jumping at the sound of a car backfiring, the way her hands shook when she locked the door at night, her insistence that they avoid certain neighborhoods. At the time, he had chalked it up to anxiety or past trauma she didn’t want to revisit. But now, everything clicked into place. She had been haunted long before she ever came into his life.

Determined not to let panic cloud his judgment, Will gathered the clues she unintentionally left behind. A taxi receipt. A torn corner of a map. A hotel keycard hidden beneath a stack of fabric swatches. She wanted him safe—but she had also never been good at covering her emotional tracks. She wrote like someone who hoped he would let her go, but acted like someone who desperately wished he wouldn’t.

He folded the letter and placed it gently into his pocket, as if keeping it close would somehow keep her close too. Then, without hesitation, he grabbed his keys and headed for the door. If Luna thought he would accept her disappearance without a fight, she didn’t know him as well as he thought she did. Whatever danger she believed she was protecting him from, he planned to confront it head-on. Love wasn’t meant to be abandoned in the shadows—it was meant to be fought for.

As Will stepped outside, a cold breeze swept across his face, mirroring the hollow emptiness Luna left behind. But beneath that ache burned something stronger: determination. Luna might have disappeared, but she wasn’t gone—not in the way that mattered. He would find her. He would unravel the truth she was running from. And he would prove to her that love, real love, doesn’t crumble under fear.