In the city of Elmira-where cobbled streets met sleek storefronts and cafés buzzed with student chatter-Dr. Joshua Bennett lived a life of quiet order. At just twenty-five, freshly graduated from medical school, he had returned to Almira University...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
In the city of Elmira—where narrow cobbled streets met glassy storefronts and students filled the cafés with quiet ambition—Dr. Joshua Bennett lived a life of quiet structure. At just twenty-five, fresh from the rigors of medical school, he had returned to Almira University, not as a student this time, but as a lecturer. Young, poised, and sharper than most expected, he stood behind the lectern with the ease of someone twice his age—and carried himself with the kind of unintentional magnetism that never went unnoticed.
Students admired him. Some boldly. Others subtly. But she never did.
Aina Yilmaz was unlike anyone Joshua had ever met. She walked into his microbiology lecture wearing a soft, earth-toned hijab that framed her face with effortless elegance, and eyes that held galaxies behind their silence. While others leaned forward to catch his smile or offered subtle flirtations between questions about enzymes and pathogens, Aina remained distant, focused—disarmingly so. She never lingered. Never laughed unnecessarily. She met his gaze with calm neutrality, always respectful, always precise.
It fascinated him. And it unnerved him.
Joshua told himself it was her intellect that caught his attention. That it was simply refreshing to see a student so focused. But late at night, when the campus lights dimmed and his thoughts wandered, he knew better. It wasn't just her discipline. It was the way she moved like someone carrying something heavy—but invisible. The way she seemed to belong, and not belong, all at once.
Miles away, in a different city, a man named Felix Caldwell stirred.
Once a soldier. Once a guardian. Now a man haunted by silence.
Felix Caldwell had been searching for years—for a face that had once meant everything. A name whispered in his memory like a prayer. A girl who had vanished without a trace.
And her eyes had been just as brown. Just as deep.
He didn't know where his search would lead. Only that he would not stop until he found her again.
And so, while Joshua's gaze lingered on the hijabi girl in his classroom, and Felix followed a trail of memory through distant cities, the quiet city of Elmira held its breath—its secrets buried beneath years of forgetting.
The veil between past and present had not yet lifted. But when it did, no heart would remain untouched.
