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Coming back from the memory, Anna blinked against the soft, golden sunlight filtering through the palms. The sound of waves crashing against the distant shore filled the air, pulling her fully into the present. She is in Hawaii now — and had been for two years.

Two years since she left everything behind.

After the incident with Julian — Anna had boarded a plane without much of a plan, only knowing that she needed to be as far from the past as possible. Hawaii had been an impulse, a place she once pinned on a map when she was seventeen and full of impossible dreams. She thought it would be temporary. Just a few months, enough time to forget.

But somehow, Hawaii wrapped around her heart.

The locals with their easy smiles, the ocean with its endless patience, the mountains that whispered stories when the wind blew through — it all made Anna feel something she hadn’t in a long time: safe. And then, amid a haze of healing, she met him. Her husband.

Kaleo.

It hadn’t been a whirlwind, it was steady, like the tide. He taught her how to paddleboard, how to find the secret spots on the island the tourists never knew about, how to trust again without even trying. And when she wasn’t looking for it, when she had finally stopped trying to outrun her past, she fell for him.

They had been married now for a year and a half. A simple ceremony, barefoot in the sand at sunrise, just them and a handful of friends who had become family. No drama, no fancy fireworks. Just the sound of the waves and a soft "I do" carried away by the wind.

Anna smiled to herself, brushing a strand of sun-bleached hair behind her ear as she watched the horizon. For the first time, the past didn’t feel like a wound anymore. It was just a story she had lived through — one that had led her here, to the life she was always meant to have.

"Honey, is everything okay?" Kaleo’s voice drifted toward her, warm and steady.

Anna turned, her smile lingering for a moment before fading into something more thoughtful. "I might need to travel a bit in the next few weeks," she said carefully. "Oxford has... invited me back. There’s an event — some kind of alumni recognition thing. They want me there."