Falling For You in the Wrong Century

CHAPTER 13: THE TIMELESS BOND

Romano’s Point of View

I never thought I’d see her again—not after that night in the rain, when everything went dark and I thought my life was over. Waking up in a field last month, surrounded by cars and paved roads I’d never seen before, I felt like I’d been torn from my own skin. The people spoke a mix of my old Tagalog and words I didn’t understand, and nothing looked the way it should.

I spent weeks moving from place to place, trying to make sense of where I was and how I’d gotten here. Then I met Father Miguel from the local church, who took me in and helped me find work. He said I had a gift for connecting with people, so I started helping organize community programs—and today, when I walked into that church, I saw her. Gracia. My Gracia.

“I’ve been searching every day,” I tell her, holding her hand tight so she can’t disappear again. “I don’t know why we’re here now, in this strange new world, but I know one thing—I was never meant to marry Trinidad. I was meant to find you, even if it took crossing time itself.”

Linda steps away quietly, giving us space as we sit together in the back of the church. Gracia tells me about her life in this time—about the tech job she left behind, the ancestral house that brought us together, how she’d been dreaming of me all those weeks. When she shows me photos of the old stone house on her phone, I recognize every corner, every portrait on the wall.

“It was never just a dream,” she says, her voice steady now. “We were always meant to find our way back to each other.”