Shadows Of The Past

Here’s Episode 4 of "A Little Lost, A Lot Found", where Jeaner’s past starts to catch up with her:

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Episode 4: Shadows of the Past

Brightport was beginning to feel like home.

Jeaner had found a rhythm in the slow days. Her art had shifted—no longer just survival sketches, but expressions of beauty. She painted sea glass and lantern-lit markets. Laughter lines etched into boats. Sometimes, she even added herself—small and distant, but there.

Rowan had become a steady presence. They didn’t label what was growing between them, but it was there—in the lingering glances, in the shared silences, in the way their hands brushed on paint cans and neither pulled away.

But peace has a way of drawing storms.

It was a Sunday morning when Jeaner first saw the shadow.

She was walking home from the bakery, paper bag warm in her arms, when she caught a glimpse of someone familiar at the corner café. A man.

He was half-turned away, but she knew that profile. That slight smirk even when he wasn’t smiling. That navy jacket she once stitched a button back onto.

Kellan.

Her breath caught, heart tripping over itself.

She turned and walked away fast, pulse pounding, almost dropping her bread. Her mind raced. How did he find me? Did someone tell him? Had he been looking this whole time?

She locked herself in her room and sat still for hours, memories crashing in like a tide that refused to retreat.

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That evening, someone knocked on her door.

It wasn’t Mrs. Tilly.

It was him.

Kellan stood there, looking tired, thinner, eyes rimmed in red. He didn’t try to touch her. Just said softly, “Jeaner... please.”

She stared at him blankly.

“I just need five minutes,” he said. “Then I’ll leave if you want me to.”

She let him in.

He looked around the room like it was sacred. Then his eyes landed on her sketchbook—open to a page titled “Anchor.”

“I deserved that,” he muttered.

Jeaner crossed her arms. “I didn’t draw it for you.”

He sat down slowly, sighing. “I don’t even know where to start. I screwed up. I know I did.”

“You didn’t screw up,” she said coldly. “You made choices.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“Then why did you?”

Kellan rubbed his face. “Arielle… it was never real. It was chaos. You and I… we were so stable, so good, I panicked. I thought I didn’t deserve that kind of love.”

Jeaner let out a bitter laugh. “So you destroyed it?”

“I was wrong,” he said. “I realized it the second I walked in and you were gone. I looked everywhere. I didn’t sleep for weeks. Arielle lied to me, manipulated—”

She cut him off. “Don’t. Don’t blame her. She didn’t owe me loyalty. You did.”

Silence.

Then she asked, softly, “What do you want from me, Kellan?”

He looked up at her. “A second chance.”

Jeaner felt something twist inside her. Not because she still loved him. But because once, she would’ve given anything to hear those words.

But not anymore.

“I found something here,” she said. “Something good. And it has nothing to do with you.”

Kellan’s expression faltered. “You’re seeing someone?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to.

He stood slowly. “So that’s it? You’ve moved on?”

“No,” she said. “I moved forward.”

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Rowan found her by the cliffside later that night, sketching under the moonlight.

He didn’t speak at first. Just sat beside her.

“I saw him,” he said finally. “Didn’t know it was him until Mrs. Tilly told me.”

Jeaner nodded.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She looked at him. “I don’t know yet. But I didn’t cry.”

He nodded slowly. “That counts for something.”

They sat in silence, the ocean roaring beneath them.

Then, Rowan said, “If he asked you to go back, would you?”

Jeaner didn’t hesitate. “No.”

He looked down at his hands, nodding. “Good.”

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That night, she tore out the page titled “Anchor.”

And sketched a new one.

A woman standing tall, hair blowing in the wind, lighthouse behind her.

Title: “Found.”

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