CHAPTER 2

My name is Kyra, I'm 27 years old, and I'm a graduate and a fashion designer.

Life was never easy for me, from a very early age I had to learn to fend for myself.

I lost my parents very early, I was still a baby when my father died, I didn't feel so much, because I didn't understand what was going on at the time, but when I lost my mother, it was an irreparable pain.

I was only 10 years old when she got sick, and she just died.

I had no control over anything, I didn't know how to act, I didn't know what would become of me without her.

I remember that day with a lot of pain in my heart, and what happened after that left marks on me that I carry to this day.

It's hard to remember everything without feeling my eyes well up with tears.

I met a boy, and his name was Dilan, and he was my best friend.

My mother worked on the beach and I took the opportunity to play with him.

I was only 7 years old when we played for the first time.

He was affectionate, thoughtful, fun, and had the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.

Playing with him was the best part of my day.

When I close my eyes, I can still smell the sea air from the beach, and I can see him running after me in an attempt to catch up with me. He was all I had besides my mother.

And when I lost her, the only person I had left was him.

I never had contact with my father's family, nor did I have with my mother's family.

My parents' relationship was not something well accepted by the family.

My father came from a very rich family, and my mother, from a poor family, and when the two met, fell in love and ran away, since then neither of them has had contact with anyone.

When my father died, my mother had to raise me alone, but she was an artist, she made incredible paintings, and she sold them all on the beach, and that was what kept our house going. She never let me starve, I always had everything I needed to live.

She always sat with me at the end of the day, and told the love stories she lived with my father.

She was the one who taught me that there are loves made to measure for us.

That if I ever felt my heart beat faster and faster, if my breathing failed for a moment, if my hands started to sweat, and I felt butterflies in my stomach for someone, that would be the right guy for me.

She always told me to pay attention to the signs, because the right guy would be kind, loving, caring, attentive, and he would fight for me under any circumstances.

Although I spent little time with my mother, she taught me a lot.

She looked like she knew our time together was short.

She said I was supposed to study, that I was strong enough to overcome any obstacle I had in front of me, that I would never let myself be beaten down by anyone's negativity.

Her voice still echoes in my mind.

She left, and I was forced to go too.

Not with her, more with a man I didn't even know, who today I know is my uncle.

He went to get me, and I ran looking for Dilan, as if my life depended on him.

When I found him, I hugged him, and I can still feel what that hug meant to me.

One day we promised that if we were to separate, we would fight to find each other again, and the two of us would never part again.

I didn't know that promise would accompany me until today.

The day I left, he reminded me of that promise. He repeated each word to me, then handed me a ring he'd had for a long time and placed in my hand.

I didn't want to leave him with nothing, so I gave him my handkerchief, which I had taken to wipe away my tears.

My uncle took me from Dilan's arms, and I can't understand how I managed to survive so much pain in a single moment.

My uncle brought me to the interior of Minas Gerais, to my maternal grandmother's house, who received me with great love.

She said she didn't know of my existence, because my mother disappeared into the world and never called her.

When they called her saying that my mother died and that I existed, she said it was a mixture of pain and emotion.

I remember seeing her crying as she hugged me, saying she would take care of me.

And she took care of it with all the love in the world.

She said she would do for me what she was never able to do for my mother, and she did a lot, she paid for my courses and college with the little she earned, and I worked part-time to help around the house.

My grandmother had two children, my mother and my uncle who came to pick me up, and we all live together in the same house, me, my grandmother, my uncle, his wife and 2 more children.

He is an anchor, and his wife is the one who helps with the finances of the house.

Recently, my grandmother called me to talk.

She told me that the house that belonged to my parents was her own, and it stayed with me when my mother died.

That she never told me because she was afraid I would leave and never show up like my mother did.

She took me to a small room, took a document from the drawer and the keys.

And I said I was giving myself away because it was unfair for me to be stuck in a corner that wouldn't support my greatness.

I took the keys and started to cry.

Because I remembered my mother, our house that was so welcoming and comfortable, and I remembered him, Dilan.

I remembered the promise we made, and which I could never keep, because I refused to leave my grandmother.

But at that moment she took my hand, and said that it was time for me to fly, and that she would be fine.

So today, I'm here, packing my bags, taking everything I need, and with an anxious heart, to return to a place that I was so happy, but also that caused me so much pain.

I knew that nothing was like before, and that Dilan was probably not there anymore.

But how I would like to have you waiting for me.

There isn't a single day that I don't think about him, that I don't think about his smile and that hug.

To this day I carry the ring he gave me around my neck, it's my amulet.

During the biggest tests of my life, I held this ring I made out of cord, and I imagined that it was Dilan giving me the strength to move forward.

I wanted him to know that I didn't forget about him, that I didn't forget anything we promised.

I didn't know where to find it.

But I would look for it.

For a long time, I refused to be in a relationship with anyone, thinking about my mother's words about the right guy, and every time I think about it, I associate her words with Dilan.

I know we were still kids, but today we're adults, and I wonder if he would be everything she told me.

And what I would feel if I ever saw him again.

I hope one day I can find out.