Chad heaved in a huge breath, the kind one takes when they were about to dive into a deep—fucking—pool of blue. He wasn't. The blue he was staring at, biding his time, was not of a pool but a brightly coloured front door. Who paints their front door blue? Was all he could think about before Jo nudged him over and rapid-fire knocked on the door.

The knock hinted at someone who was hangry, tangry (tired-angry?), or perhaps just psychotically impatient. Either way, Chad was glad he wasn't on the other side of the door. They could hear languid footsteps heading to the door, and again he wondered, what sort of person doesn't hurry to their door when someone nearly knocks it off the hinges?

The answer to his question was a sight he hadn't expected. The woman before them was as petite as Jo, but perhaps fiercer than Jo could ever be. Her piercing blue eyes darted from Chad's face to Jo's and back to Chad's.

Chad swallowed in fear. Jo, silenced for the first time, nudged him with her elbow. He cracked a nervous smile. "We're looking for Echo Graystone? We called earlier."

The living dead doll tattooed on one of the woman's biceps glared at him with equally fierce eyes as the owner of the said arm. The woman had short hair Chad didn't know how to describe other than punk-rock: the left side buzzed like a commando, while a long fringe swept over her right side. A septum ring dangled from her nose. She wore small shorts, and a cropped top, likely trimmed herself. It showed hard-set abs underneath. Abs Chad would kill for.

The woman pouted. "And who's looking?"

"That'd... that'd be us," Chad stammered, bundling his sweaty palms up into nervous fists.

"You got a name, wise-ass?"

Chad nodded frantically. "Yes. I'm... I'm Chad. And this is my sister, Jo."

The woman nodded to Jo. "So you're the one I talked to on the phone."

Jo nodded beside Chad. "And you're Echo?"

"The one and only." Echo extended her hand and shook theirs with a very firm grip for someone her size. Chances were, if she and Jo were to wrestle, for whatever reason—and Jo, being a zookeeper who often wrestled large predators—Chad would still put his money on Echo.

"Boy, you're strong." Chad thought. Out loud.

"I'm a boxer." Echo crossed her arms and blocked the doorway.

Fuck! Chad swore inwardly. There he was, putting his foot where it didn't belong, in his mouth.

Echo's jaws clenched in anger, and she turned to Jo, frowning. "Why are you looking for June?"

There was no way she was inviting them in. But she also wasn't telling them to go away or trying to sweep them off her porch like Mrs Surve had attempted. Chad took that as a good sign.

"We're trying to make sure she is okay. She left home rather abruptly—and it was my fault. I proposed—" Chad began, only to be interrupted by a loud bang somewhere in the house. Like a door slamming shut. Both he and Jo exchanged wide-eyed glances at the sound.

"Wait, hold up. She ran away because you proposed?" Echo, who'd stood on the door like a tiny club bouncer, looked amused for once, her brows rising high.

Chad stared at the corridor behind her. "Is there someone in the house with you?" Perhaps June?

Echo bristled then, crossing her arms in front of her chest so that her biceps rippled. She blocked the doorway further, rather causally. "It's the wind, mate. Nothing to see here."

An odd excuse. Chad frowned. There was no wind. Since the rain had stopped earlier in the day, the weather was as calm as fuck. But who was he to question this woman? She probably had a guy back there in her room, waiting for her to devour him, and they'd just interrupted a happy session. Probably explained why the woman looked positively murderous when she'd opened the door. 

"Do you know where she is?" he asked, his gut telling him perhaps June wasn't too far indeed. He tried to focus on the task at hand, on the plan: find June, apologise—for proposing, and freaking her out. What is it with me and proposing to women? He wondered. First Setal and now June—running away...

Jo nudged him quietly, her pointy elbow digging into his arm like an icepick to soft snow.

Right, back to the plan: get June back after apologising for whatever he'd done this time, and resume life as it should have been. Happy.

"Do you know she is?" he asked again, a bit more firmly.

"Maybe." A sly smile played on Echo's lips.

For the first time since that awful, awful morning, when he'd woken up thinking, 'Yes, this is day one of the rest of our lives', only to have it turn into the darkest day of his life, Chad felt relief. Hope. He was close to finding the woman he was in love with, the one who felt like home, his soul mate. He was so close...

"And maybe I'll tell you, or maybe I won't. You look cute, squirming, that is." The smile widened into a toothy grin. "I like your vibe, dude. This whole, desperate Bridget Jone's vibe you got going."

Jo sniggered, eyeing Chad before she cut in. "He just wants her back. To have a chance at happiness. Everyone deserves happiness, no? Unless... June wasn't actually happy with him?"

Echo shook her head, amused. "She's fucking delirious. Makes me sick! But she's scared—that tomorrow, your boy here is going to wake up and realise she is nothing like the woman he fell in love with, the woman who inspired a book out of him."

"She thinks Chad's going to leave her one day?" Jo laughed. "Has she met Chad? He's as ready to leave her as coral is ready to leave the rock it clings to. Or... or fire is ready to leave its fuel... or as stench is ready to leave the pile of garbage... "

"Jo!" Chad frowned at his sister. "I thought you were on my side."

"I am." Jo flashed him a smile. "But it's the truth. You're never going to leave June. This woman voluntarily sleeps with you..."

"Will you shut up?" He felt the heat crawl up to his cheeks.

"This guy lives and breathes 'love'. There's no way he's throwing that away..." Jo continued. "Unless, of course, your girl doesn't actually love him and this is her stupid way of trying to break his heart gently. In that case, I can't say give the dude a chance, but news flash, girlfriend, this isn't a gentle breakup. He's a sensitive soul. You should have seen him after his last break up, all—"

"JO!" Chad's cheeks burned like kindling in Aussie summer. 

"What?" Jo flashed him an annoyed look. "All I'm saying is, there are better ways to call it quits."

Chad turned to Echo. "She's calling it quits?"

"What else could running away mean?" Jo grumbled beside him.

Chad felt his innards squirm. Please, let it be no. Please, let it be no.

"You should have tested the waters first, before popping that stupid question with that stupidly expensive ring. Again." Jo, forever the truth-sayer, patted his arm. There, there.

"So it's my fault. I messed up. Again." Chad hung his head. "I should have asked her if she wanted to even marry, let alone marry me, before popping the question.

"At least let me apologise for that." He stepped forward, randomly imagining Echo throwing him down in one of those epic flip-and-slam thingies he often saw wrestlers do, not that Echo was a wrestler, of course.

Chad heaved in another deep breath. "When I met her, I was in a bad place, desperate to save the one thing I still had going for me, my career. Everything else was already a dumpster fire. My love life, my confidence, my relationship with my family, my sanity... Then there she was, this fiercely beautiful creature who terrified me, who swore at me, who told me to piss off in no subtle terms. But, something about her, I couldn't shake. I don't want to lose her. Please, Miss Graystone—"

"Dude! Do I look like I want to be called Miss Graystone?" Echo interrupted him. Her eyebrows rose high in question.

"I don't understand why she ran..." Chad grimaced. He could feel the thick folded papers in his pocket—the letter. "Tell me. What can I do? I'll do anything. I'll even take the question back. I'll sell the ring and put it in a college fund for Ciara...  I just want her back."

"Aw, really?" Jo placed a hand on her heart. "You'll do that for her?"

"Of course, she's my only niece," Chad replied.

"Umm... I'm just gonna interrupt the obvious moment you guys are having," Echo cleared her throat, and the twins turned to their query in unison. "Shall we get back to June? Or have you already decided about her ring?"

Her ring? He stood, confused. June wants the ring?

"Here's the deal," Echo began, exasperated sigh notwithstanding. "A point you obviously missed from the letter she wrote you—was that she wants you to know her past, so you know what you're getting yourself into—if you even want it in the end. She thinks it's unfair to say yes to you without you knowing everything there is to know about her—in case it impacts how you feel about her. She's giving you an out, mate."

"Giving me an out? I don't want an out. I want an in!" Chad shook his head in confusion. "Wait, you called her June. Not Yumi."

"Of course, I called her June. It's the name she goes by—her middle name is Joon." Echo shook her head in return. "Only her family called her Yumi. That and a few neighbours. Thought you knew that."

"He only found out about Yumi today. Give him a few days," Jo said, popping a chewing gum in her mouth beside Chad.

"So I can call her June?" he breathed in relief, instead.

Echo turned to Jo then, slightly exasperated. "Is he for real? Or is he high?"

"Unfortunately?" Jo glanced at Chad. "Real."

"And she fell for him?" Echo laughed in shock before realising that Chad had possibly stopped breathing at the word 'fell'. "Relax lover boy. She's not done with you. She only wants you to learn things about her past she hasn't got the balls to tell you herself."

"You know where she is, don't you?" Chad choked on the words.

Echo nodded. "But first, finish what you started. I assume you haven't met the turd bucket yet?"

"Turd bucket?"

"It's what I call her ex, the one before you—though technically you're not an ex. Yet."

The word 'ex' though devastatingly short, made Chad worry evermore. He did not want to be an ex if he could help it. "Who is the turd bucket? She wrote little about him in the letter. Just that she met him at uni, and that he's the reason her life went to hell."

Echo nodded profusely. Obviously, she was not a big fan of the said turd bucket, though Chad doubted he'd ever come close to it himself and it had nothing to do with the moniker, but the man—whoever he was—himself. June's ex, apparently the love of her life once upon a time according to her letter, the man who broke her heart so much so she never wanted to feel that pain again. She never wanted to love again.

Chad definitely knew he didn't like the guy already, whoever he was.

Echo stepped out of the threshold with a strange, gleeful grin. "He's the last piece of the June-puzzle. The man that made her believe she was not worthy of love." Echo gritted her teeth at that. "Once you meet him, you'll understand why she feels she doesn't deserve you."

"I'll do anything for her." Chad stepped closer to Echo, more determined than ever to prove himself.

"Anythin—" Echo had begun, only to be cut off by Jo.

"Don't even bother asking that question. He'll do just about anything right now to get to her back. You tell him to jump off a bridge, he's stupid enough to do it." Jo smiled. "What does he need to do?"

"Hey!" Chad protested.

Jo shrugged. "What? Tell me it's not true?"

Chad couldn't. It was true. He was stupid enough to do anything asked.

Echo nodded, glancing at Chad head-to-toe once more. "Tell me what you know about her so far."

Chad started from the beginning. "She is the only child. Her parents died in a tragic house fire. She escaped. Somehow ended up living on the streets after their deaths. She was enrolled in medicine but dropped out. She dated her neighbour on and off for a long time until the turd bucket came into the picture."

Echo gave him an approving look.

"She... she is confident, charismatic, beautiful, kind, caring..." he continued.

"What do you know about the house fire?" Echo asked.

"What does the house fire have to do with June?" Jo asked.

"It's what she thinks it has to do with her." Echo volunteered. "What do you know about the fire?"

Jo and Chad both shrugged together.

"Nothing. It started at night in her room after she'd left home, and her parents didn't have time to escape. June thinks it's her fault. Why?"

"Look up the news reports on it. You'll find out." The look on Echo's face softened then.

"Is that what you want him to do, go look up old news reports on the fire at her house?" Jo chimed in.

"No. But you'll know why she feels guilty." Echo shook her head. "She wants you to understand who she is, warts and all, before you can even think about marriage. So go understand her, come back, and then I'll tell you where she is."

Chad nodded furiously. "Tell me what to do?"

"Good. When you meet the man that ruined her, I want you to look him in the eyes and ask him one simple question."

"What question?"

Echo laughed at his eagerness. "You will not ask who it is?"

Chad smiled back, a sense of peace seeping into his tired heart. He was one task away from getting June back. "It doesn't matter who she was with, what she has done, or what she thinks she has done. None of it matters, if today, tomorrow, ten days from now, weeks, months, or years from now, she's mine."

"Aww!"

It was Jo, with her hands held over her heart, tears in her eyes, and the look she often gave to Hugh Grant in his lovey-dovey romcoms, or the likes of love Colin Firth's dashing Darcy got—a series she's watched too many times to count.

When he turned back to Echo, she was staring at him with a similar look in her eyes, like he was some romantic hero in his own romcom.

"What?" he barked half-heartedly.

"That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard." Echo blurted. "You are a writer, aren't you?" She cleared her throat and swiped at the tears in her hardened eyes.

Chad shifted on his feet. "What's the question you want me to ask this guy?"

"Ask him who June is and what she meant to him?"

"That's all?"

"That's all."

"And you'll tell me where she is?"

"You look this guy in the eye and ask that question; I'll walk her down the aisle myself." A sad smile lingered on her lips then. "You have my word."

Chad suddenly felt a knot in his throat, the knot that often accompanied emotions and a desire to cry. He was so close, so close to getting her back. "Who is he?"

The smile on Echo's face widened.