Chapter forty-three
The Oasis
Present
No walls. Just us.
“T his is beautiful,” she whispers, turning around.
Catalina thought so, too.
The sunlight filters through the tall trees, scattering golden patches across the grass. The water is clear enough to see the stones beneath.
Luc found me years ago, but I’ve been waiting for her. And now she’s here.
They don’t know it, but their souls have been here before.
The souls of Catalina and Carlos. And though the faces are different, the bond remains the same.
It’s been a hundred years, yet I would know them anywhere. Their love and connection call to me now as it pulses in the space between them.
Rylee crouches by the pool, dipping her fingers into the water. “The water is warm, and it’s also warm here,” she gasps as she lifts her hand, letting droplets back in the pool.
“I told you,” Luc replies, a smile playing on his lips.
“How?” she asks, glancing back at him.
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I think it’s a natural spring.”
What they don’t know is that I exist for them.
Rylee stands and brushes her palms on her sweatpants. The warm breeze carries their laughter as they move a few steps away from the water and settle onto the grass.
Luc reaches for a taco from the bag, holding it out to her. “Here. Try this.”
Her lips part, and she takes a bite, her eyes closing as she moans softly. “Oh my God.”
When she opens her eyes, Luc is watching her. His gaze is unflinching, and the weight of it presses against her walls.
“Good?” he asks, his low chuckle brushing against the quiet like a warm breeze.
She nods, her voice stolen by the flavors, the moment, and maybe by the way he looks at her like she’s the only thing that matters.
The air shifts again. It’s subtle, but I feel it—the way their souls begin to reach for each other, despite the fear, despite the scars.
He offers her another bite, but instead she lifts her hand, finger gently close around his wrist. Her smile widens as she takes the taco from him, and brings it to his lips. He leans forward, his eyes never leaving hers as he takes a bite.
I’ve seen this before. A hundred years ago, Carlos and Catalina sat here, just like this. Sharing smiles, glances, and laughter. But those moments were stolen; hidden from a world that wouldn’t allow their love.
This time, there are no secrets. No fathers to chase them away. No society to pull them apart. And yet, I feel her doubt.
“How did you know about this place?” she asks, her hand brushing over the grass.
“I found it by accident when I was a kid. I used to wander off a lot. Drove the staff insane.”
She laughs softly, shaking her head. “You’ve been a troublemaker since day one, haven’t you?”
“Not trouble. Adventurous.”
His gaze lingers as she laughs again, brushing her hair from her face.
“Your laugh is beautiful,” he says.
“Thanks,” she mumbles, looking away.
I feel the shift in her heart, the way his words dig into the walls she’s built around herself. She doesn’t believe him, not fully, not yet. But she wants to.
She always wanted to.
Her thoughts pull her further away, to the scars she hides, the marks she thinks make her less. But he doesn’t look away. His thumb grazes her chin, gently pulling her face back to his.
“Don’t do that,” he murmurs.
“Do what?” She whispers.
“Tell yourself that this isn’t real. That I don’t think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen—because you are.” His voice is rough now, raw, as though the words are being ripped from his heart. “Every time we get closer, you pull away. You put up a wall between us.” His honesty lingers in the air between them.
“Luc, stop.” She looks away, but I catch the fear in her eyes—the fear of letting someone in.
“We agreed this was an arrangement,” she says, colder now, trying to bury the ache beneath practicality.
His jaw tightens, the frustration simmering beneath his calm exterior. “Look at me,” he says. “Are you saying last night didn’t mean anything? That last summer didn’t mean anything?”
Her silence stretches, her heart pulling her in two directions.
“I told you I liked you, Rylee,” he continues, softer now. “I wanted us to see where this could go. But you left without saying goodbye. You changed your number like I didn’t mean anything to you.”
She stiffens, her hands trembling in her lap. “I told you I didn’t do relationships, especially not long distance.”
“That wasn’t the real reason, was it?” He’s still looking at her, still searching for the truth she refuses to give.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he says finally. “Whatever your mom told you, it’s not true. You’re not cursed.”
The curse is real, but not in the way they’ve always believed. It isn’t that the women in her family are unlovable. The curse isn’t a spell or a punishment. It’s a wound, passed down like an inheritance, shaping the choices they make, the fears they carry. Catalina’s choice created it, but Rylee has the power to end it. She needs to choose love over fear or any external pressures. I feel the weight of his words settle on her, pressing against the barriers she’s built so carefully.
“ Please ,” he says, his voice breaking. “Give me a chance to show you.”
For a moment, she lets herself imagine it—what it would be like to believe him. To let him in. But then the fear comes rushing back, pulling her under. The silence between them grows thick, suffocating, until he sighs, his shoulders slumping. The hope in his chest dims, though it doesn’t disappear entirely.
“Okay,” he says finally, his fingers brush against her knee, the touch so light it’s barely there. “But can you at least give me this? For the time we’re here, can we forget about contracts and arrangements? No walls. Just us.”
Her heart trembles, caught between the walls she’s spent years building and the hope he offers her now. I hold my breath, the sunlight flickers through the leaves, casting patterns on the ground like a thousand tiny promises.
And then, finally, she speaks. “Okay.”
The word is soft, barely more than a whisper, but it’s enough.
I hold the moment for them, as I did for Catalina and Carlos. Because this love, this chance at something whole and real, deserves to bloom. Even after a hundred years, even after all the fractures, love always finds a way back.
Beneath the sunshine, in my sanctuary, it begins again.