"Across All Places, It's You"

CHAPTER 8: Separate Lives

The city was different now.

After graduation, everything shifted. Yarra found herself in a white coat, walking the crowded halls of St. Jude Medical University. Her days were filled with lectures, hospital rounds, anatomy labs, and sleepless nights. She always had a pen in her pocket and a stethoscope around her neck. It was tough — exhausting even — but it was her dream. She wanted to heal, to help, and to be more than the quiet girl from San Isidro.

She had no time to think about Zarred. At least that’s what she kept telling herself.

But sometimes, in the middle of long nights or when she passed by a field of daisies on her way home, she’d stop and wonder where he was now… what he was doing… if he ever thought about her.

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Zarred, on the other hand, was back in Singapore, enrolled in a prestigious university for Business Administration. His life was surrounded by boardrooms, case studies, and high expectations. His father had already started training him to take over Altamonte Corporation.

Despite his wealth and comfort, Zarred felt something missing.

He remembered the day he left without a proper goodbye. He remembered Yarra’s tears… and how he lied, saying he didn’t love her.

But he did. He still did.

He just couldn’t choose her over his family's obligations. Not at that time.

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Months passed.

Yarra grew stronger, wiser. She made friends in med school — friends like Dianne, who was as loud as she was brilliant, and Kent, a quiet guy who always brought her coffee during long hospital duties. She was slowly moving on, or so she thought.

But one rainy night, as she was walking home from duty, she passed a small bookstore. In the window was a display of classic business books — and in the middle of them, a newly published one titled The Heir of Altamonte: A Young CEO’s Vision.

Her heart stopped.

The name below the title read:

Zarred Altamonte

He was rising. Succeeding. Living a life completely separate from hers now.

She stepped away from the window, her heart heavy.

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Meanwhile, Zarred sat alone in his high-rise apartment. The lights of Singapore shone outside, but he couldn’t sleep. He scrolled through his phone, pausing at a photo — a daisy pendant on a wooden table.

The only thing he had left of that part of his life.

And though their paths had split, and though the world had changed, he whispered one thing into the night:

“Yarra… I hope you’re happy.”