Perfect Timing (Timeless Love #3)

Chapter One

NINA

Five Years Earlier

ITALY

The rain poured down in a relentless torrent, each drop a sharp echo of the pain that had consumed me. I stood alone by the window, watching the storm lash against the glass, a tempest which mirrored the turmoil within my heart.

It had been two weeks since Ronan left… since he shattered our world with words that still echoed in my mind like a cruel refrain.

I held him when he cried.

I wiped his tears when he needed comfort.

I picked him up when he couldn’t do so himself, and he still left.

Left me.

Left us.

Left our life.

Ronan and I were supposed to be forever. I felt it the moment we met in that crowded garden, our hands reaching for the same peony. From his touch alone, I knew he was different.

His laughter was like music, and his touch was a promise of endless nights tangled in whispered dreams.

But then the grief came, swift and merciless. Ronan’s family—his parents, his sister, his grandparents—all gone in a mere matter of years. The news came like a thunderclap on a clear day, shaking our foundations until there was nothing left but shattered fragments of what once was.

He retreated into silence, into a grief so deep I feared I would lose him too.

I tried to reach him, to soothe the pain etched into the lines of his face, but he pushed me away with a force that left me gasping for air.

His grayish-blue eyes, once so full of love, only held shadows I couldn’t penetrate.

Nights turned into days, and still, he remained distant, a ghost haunting the halls of our shared apartment.

Then came that fateful night when the rain fell, but this time in our sheets. His footsteps were heavy, burdened with something unnamed. As he entered, his silhouette cut through the dim light seeping through the curtains.

Suddenly, the thing I feared the most became my reality.

“Ronan,” I whispered, my voice breaking the fragile silence between us. He didn’t respond or meet my gaze. He stood there like a figure cloaked in sorrow.

“I can’t do this anymore,” he said finally, his voice hoarse with unshed tears.

My heart clenched at his words, a thousand questions poised on the tip of my tongue.

What did he mean?

“Can’t do what?”

Ronan shook his head, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

“I’m leaving, Nina,” he said, each word a knife piercing through the fragile shell of hope I clung to. “I have to.”

The room spun around me, the walls closing in as I struggled to comprehend the enormity of his words.

“L-leaving?” I repeated numbly, my mind grasping for any semblance of understanding.

He turned away, unable to face me with his shoulders hunched. “I’m sorry.” His voice was barely audible over the roar of the storm outside. “I can’t explain it. Just know I love you and I always will.”

“Ronan, please,” I pleaded, reaching out to touch his arm. He flinched at my touch, pulling away as if my fingertips burned with an unbearable heat.

“I can’t,” he whispered. “I can’t stay, baby.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks, mingling with the raindrops that slid down the windowpane. “Why?” I cried, the word torn from me in a sob, echoing through the empty room.

He hesitated, his back still turned to me. “I can’t bring you down, tesoro. Not anymore. I can’t stop you from living your life because my grief is overwhelming.”

I shook my head, the world narrowing to the darkness in his voice.

He looked at me, his gaze shadowed with guilt and haunted by the ghosts of things left unsaid. “Your dream is fashion, art, and books. I’ve stopped you from living your life, from chasing your dreams, and I hate myself for it.”

“Ronan…” His name slipped from my lips, a soft, broken plea tangled with everything I wanted to say but couldn’t. He lifted a trembling hand to my face, his fingers gently tracing the path of a tear that had already fallen.

“Tesoro, you’re a light. You’re the brightest light this world will ever know.” His thumb brushed my cheek, reverent, as if he could somehow wipe away the pain. “And I’m… smoke. I keep dragging you into my mess, my darkness, and my grief.”

I reached up, holding his hand against my cheek, closing my eyes to feel the warmth of his touch. “I’ve always seen past the shadows and grief. I’m not afraid of the smoke because you taught me how to breathe through it.”

“I wish it were that simple,” he mumbled, his voice a whisper carried on the storm’s lament.

“It can be,” I insisted, stepping closer to him despite the gulf that stretched between us. “Don’t shut me out. Please.”

His jaw clenched, a muscle twitching in his cheek. “Non posso perdere anche te,1” he admitted, his voice barely audible over the rain’s ceaseless drumming.

“Then don’t,” I urged, reaching out to take his hand. He flinched again, but this time he didn’t pull away. His fingers intertwined with mine, a fleeting connection in the face of an uncertain future.

“I can’t continue dragging you down with me,” he said, his voice a tortured whisper. “You deserve everything you want out of life. You deserve to become everything you’ve ever dreamed of being. Me, this, us—it will bring you down. It’s been bringing you down. I can’t let that happen. Not anymore.”

“Please don’t leave me,” I whispered, the words a prayer against the storm raging both outside and within.

He closed his eyes, his forehead pressing against mine as if seeking solace in the touch. “Mi dispiace,2” he whispered, his breath warm against my skin.

He let go of my hand, his touch slipping away like the last vestige of hope in a world turned dark and uncertain. Then turned toward the door, each step a heavy echo in the silence that enveloped us both.

I watched him go as the door closed softly behind him, leaving me alone with the storm and the shattered remnants of a love that had promised forever, only to falter in the face of unfathomable loss.

I sank to the floor once more, my heart aching with the weight of goodbye. Stillness followed, and I clung to the memory of his touch, the echo of his words, and the stupid, fragile hope that someday, somehow, we would find our way back to each other amidst the ruins of what once was.

But for now, all that remained was the rainfall that matched the tears I shed for a love lost and a future shattered by the cruel hand of fate.