A knock at my front door startled me. My heart lurched—was it Daniel again? Or, in my wildest hope, could it be Hector somehow returning? The thought alone made me leap from my chair, ignoring the tea.
But when I opened the door, I found Jasmine instead, carrying a small laptop under her arm. She smiled wearily. "Sorry to drop by unannounced."
Relief and mild disappointment warred in my chest. "No, it's okay. Come in."
She slipped off her shoes, scanning my face. "You look… nostalgic. Everything alright?"
I shrugged, gesturing to my phone's gallery still open on the table. "Just remembering how Hector and I started."
She set her laptop down, nodding with understanding. "That's good. Might keep you grounded in why you're doing all this."
I sank onto the couch, and Jasmine joined me. "I was so happy," I whispered, voice trembling. "I never thought it would end like this."
"It hasn't ended," she said firmly. "He's just… missing. But we'll find him."
I exhaled shakily. "Did your friend have any luck with the code?"
Jasmine grimaced. "Not much. She says it's definitely some kind of cipher, but she can't crack it without a key. She asked if we have any numbers, phrases, or references that might be special to Hector."
I thought about the trip to the lake, the random jokes, the date of our first meeting. But nothing stood out as an obvious key phrase. "I'm not sure," I admitted. "Hector never shared too many personal details. He was always so secretive about certain things."
Jasmine touched my arm gently. "Then maybe we need to look at his belongings again. Could be a hidden reference in a book title or something he wrote."
I nodded, wiping my eyes. "Yeah. I'll do that tonight. Might also check the boxes in storage one more time."
She offered a reassuring smile. "We'll crack this. And once we do, we'll have a lead on where he went."
---
Afternoon Investigations
Jasmine stayed for a while, helping me comb through the photos on my phone, scanning for any consistent date or phrase Hector might have joked about. We found pictures from the weekend trip, the café visits, the farmers' market—so many little snapshots of a love story that felt both recent and impossibly distant.
We paused at one photo from the lakeside cabin trip. The date stamp caught Jasmine's eye: April 17. "Did something special happen that day?" she asked.
I shook my head. "Not that I recall. It was just the day we arrived."
She frowned. "He wrote 'Best day' in the caption though."
A faint smile touched my lips. "He said that every day we spent together was 'the best day' until the next one came along. It was kind of a running joke."
Jasmine typed a note on her phone. "Might be nothing, but I'll keep it in mind. Could be a code date or something."
We continued for another hour, but no clear key phrase emerged. Eventually, Jasmine had to leave, promising to keep brainstorming. I thanked her, trying not to let despair creep in again. As I closed the door behind her, the apartment felt emptier than ever.
---
A Lingering Ghost
Dusk settled outside, the sky turning shades of orange and pink. I stood by the window, remembering the last time Hector had watched a sunset with me. We'd been on my balcony, leaning against the railing, his arm around my waist. He'd murmured something about how sunsets were like goodbyes—bittersweet but inevitable. I'd teased him for being too poetic, but secretly, I loved that side of him.
Now, I wondered if he'd been preparing me all along for a goodbye he knew he'd have to say.
My phone buzzed, startling me from my thoughts. A text from an unknown number. My pulse kicked into high gear as I opened it, only to feel a rush of disappointment when I read the words:
"We see you."
Ice crawled through my veins. It had to be from whoever was hunting Hector, the same people he was hiding from. My throat constricted, terror warring with anger. They were trying to intimidate me, make me back off.
But they didn't know me very well. If anything, their threats only strengthened my resolve. I quickly forwarded the text to Jasmine, typing: "They're messing with me. I won't stop."
She replied almost instantly: "Call the police?"
I shook my head, even though she couldn't see me. The police might be compromised, for all I knew, if this went as high as Hector feared. And I had no proof that this text was from a real threat or just someone messing around. Instead, I blocked the number, my heart pounding. My hands shook, but I refused to let them see me break.
Hector, I thought, what did you get yourself into?
---
Revisiting the Beginning
Later that night, after a hasty dinner, I pulled out the photo album again. This time, I looked for clues beyond the pictures themselves—scribbles Hector might have made, dates or notes. A few pages had small Post-its with inside jokes: "Our first argument—over pineapples on pizza." Another read: "You sang off-key for an hour in the car, but I still love you."
I paused on a Polaroid of us from the second month we dated. We were in my living room, me sitting on his lap, just laughing at the camera. I remembered the warmth of his chest against my back, the feeling that I was exactly where I needed to be. The note beneath read: "When we fell in love, 2 months in."
Tears threatened to blur my vision. This was it—the moment we'd admitted our feelings, the day we'd gone from infatuation to something deeper. We'd made a silly ceremony of it, each writing down one reason we loved the other. Hector's reason had been: "You see the world with kindness and hope, and it makes me believe in a future worth fighting for."
A sob choked out of me. He'd always been fighting for something, I realized. Whether it was justice, or me, or a life free from the shadows of his job. Maybe he'd fought too long alone.
I ran my fingers over his handwriting, remembering the sweet promise in his voice. If only I'd known how quickly that future would be threatened.
---
Resolve Under Starlight
Unable to bear the apartment's silence, I stepped onto the small balcony. The sky was clear, stars pricking the darkness. I gazed at them, thinking of Hector's mention of how each star was like a memory—shining even after the moment was gone. It comforted me, in a way, to imagine his love lingering like starlight, even if he wasn't here.
My phone sat heavy in my pocket, the blocked text from earlier still looming in my thoughts. I inhaled the night air, letting it cool my heated cheeks. They wanted me scared. They wanted me to stop. But all it did was remind me how important it was to keep going.
"I won't give up," I whispered to the sky, to the ghost of Hector's presence that lived in my mind. "We fell in love for a reason, and I'm not letting them take that away."
I clutched the Polaroid in my hand, the one that declared When we fell in love. This was my anchor, the proof that Hector's feelings were real, that he wouldn't abandon me unless forced. With that conviction, I returned inside, flipping off the lights and letting the darkness envelop me.
Tomorrow, I'd tear through more of his belongings, scour every note or scribble. I'd bug Jasmine again to decode the file. I'd watch my back for suspicious figures, mindful of the threat. Because if Hector believed in a future worth fighting for, then so did I.