Jade (tense):
"What did you say?"
Vie:
"The red string. The invisible bond. Lance believed in it. Obsessed, really."
Jade's pulse quickened.
Vie (leaning in):
"What if I told you... he was looking for someone before he died? Someone who wasn't you."
Jade (coldly):
"You should leave."
Vie (smiling):
"Truth is never polite."
Flashback — Lance's Office, Weeks Before His Death
Jade remembered the time she found Lance's secret notebook — filled with scribbles, quotes, maps of Asia, and a sketch of a red thread tied around two fingers.
Jade (in memory):
"What is this?"
Lance:
"Proof that fate isn't just a word. It's a law. I'm just trying to find its code."
She had laughed then, thinking he was joking.
But now...
Back to the Present — Villa Garden Path
Chase was walking alone when he found Jade, breathless and pale.
Chase:
"Hey, are you okay?"
Jade:
"Just needed air."
Chase:
"You look like you saw a ghost."
Jade:
"Maybe I did."
They walked in silence, until Jade finally spoke.
Jade:
"Do you believe in soulmates, Chase?"
Chase:
"Before you? No. Now? I'm starting to think I've met you before. Somewhere my brain can't reach."
She stopped walking.
Jade:
"I think Lance knew something. About us. About... fate."
Chase looked at her, serious.
Chase:
"Then maybe it wasn't an accident that we met. Maybe he left clues."
Lance's Journal Resurfaces
Back in her hotel room that night, Jade opened her luggage to find something strange.
An envelope.
No address. No name. Just her initials — JV — in Lance's handwriting.
Her breath caught.
Inside, a single page. Dated one week before his accident.
"If you're reading this, I must be gone. But know this — the thread does not die with me. It was never mine to keep. Find the man in white. He carries half your fate."
Jade dropped the paper.
Her vision spun.
Jade (whispers):
"Chase..."
Simultaneously — Chase's Apartment, Manila
Chase couldn't sleep. Again.
He opened his drawer, the one with all his family heirlooms and photos. And there it was.
A red string bracelet.
Old. Frayed. Not his.
He didn't remember where it came from.
Only that when he held it, he felt calm.
Flashback — Chase, Age 10
A dream. Always the same.
A girl in white. Her face blurred.
A beach. A storm.
Her whispering: "Find me before the thread breaks."
He had never told anyone.
Until Jade.
Jade stared at herself in the hotel room mirror.
Behind her, just for a moment — a flicker.
Lance's reflection.
Smiling.
But not at her.
At something behind her.
She turned.
Nothing.
Just her shadow.
YOU ARE READING
The One I Cannot Touch
Romance"How do you love someone who carries the heart of the man you already lost?" Jade Celestine Vera is rich, guarded, and grieving - still haunted by the death of her fiancé five years ago. Dr. Chase Alexander Miller is Manila's top trauma surgeon, sav...
String 9: The Mirror Between Us
Start from the beginning
