### **Chapter 5: The Day He Left**
It was the first morning of autumn. The air had turned crisp overnight, and golden leaves danced along the cobblestone path outside Elara's window. She reached for the warmth beside her — but the space was empty. The blanket still held his scent, faint and fading.
She rose slowly, confused but not yet alarmed. Maybe he'd gone for a walk. Maybe he was getting coffee, like he sometimes did. But hours passed, and he didn't return.
His cottage was silent. His notebook — always by his side — was gone. The clothes he kept in her drawer had vanished. Only a dried lavender stem rested on her windowsill, tied with twine. No note. No goodbye. Just… absence.
Panic set in like a storm tide. She called every place he might have gone. Searched the cliffs. Asked everyone. But no one had seen him. It was as if the sea had taken him back.
That night, she sat on their bench, the wind tugging at her coat. Her eyes were hollow, red-rimmed, staring into the gray beyond the horizon.
She whispered his name, once.
Then again.
But only the waves replied, soft and merciless.
And just like that, Theo was gone.