And though the laws forbade it, she bent them from time to time. Just slightly. Just enough.


Now and then, she thinned the veil between realms and watched Ethan. She saw him age gently, kindness still etched in the lines of his face. She watched him find joy again, saw the laughter return to his eyes, and held her breath as he built a life filled with love. Children. Grandchildren. Quiet moments in a sunlit garden. Living. And she was proud of him.


Time slipped away like ripples on a lake. Years went by, decades perhaps. And when Ethan’s day of passing finally came, Amelia looked on from beyond the veil, as she always had. This time, though, something was different. It was as if Fate itself wanted to grant one final mercy.


For just a moment - just a breath between heartbeats - Ethan’s gaze lifted, as if to sense something, something beyond the edges of being. And then he saw her, hazy in blurred focus.


“You’re here,” he said weakly, astonishment blooming in his faded voice.


Amelia took a step forward, close enough to see the tears welling up in his dying eyes.


“I never really left,” she replied softly.


He smiled, tired but whole. “I knew,” he uttered. “I always knew.”


He lifted his hand, reaching out to her. She couldn’t touch him - not truly - but she reached back. And for the briefest moment, the veil dissolved, as if bowing to the power of love.


“Amelia .... my love,” he murmured with a faint smile. And he was gone.


She stood in this quiet afterglow of his soul passing, her hand still hovering in the air, the warmth of his presence fading away like the last of the light at dusk. He had remembered her. And for Amelia, that was enough. To have been loved truly and deeply, even once, was to exist beyond time. And even if the world had forgotten her name, even if no one spoke of her again, she had lived in someone's heart.

And in that moment, she felt eternal