handwriting, steadier than in his final message.
I was nervous too, you know. I loved the sea, but I knew what it would ask of you. I remember how tightly you held my hand during that first dance.
Every time I sailed away, I carried that moment with me. I wanted our anniversary cruise to be a second chance. A dance with nowhere else I had to be.
Until then, I’d believed the cruise was Martin’s last attempt to convince me to explore the world.
His letter revealed something different.
He’d wanted time with me—uninterrupted time together, without another voyage waiting to separate us.
“He never finished the map,” I told Elena, showing her a photograph on my phone.
She studied it and tapped an empty section.
“So? You finish it.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start. Those were his places.”
“Then choose some of your own.”
