Chapter: Matteo

Olivia arrived at the park Francesca had mentioned. In her backpack, she carried some of Tom's postcards, as if they gave her strength. The sun bathed the trees in a warm golden hue, and the air smelled of lavender and freshly cut grass. On a bench near the lake, a boy with dark hair was flipping through a large book with a red cover.

"Matteo?" she asked softly.

The boy looked up and smiled. His eyes were so much like Tom's that, for a moment, Olivia felt as if time had shattered.

"Are you Olivia?" he asked confidently.

She nodded and sat beside him.

"Tom talked a lot about you. He said you were brave. That you wrote beautiful things. And that you made the best hot chocolate in the world."

Olivia laughed, a lump in her throat.

"I talk a lot about him too. And yes, my hot chocolate is legendary."

"He told me that if we ever met, I had to give you this."

He pulled out a folded envelope carefully sealed with a hand-drawn flower. Olivia recognized it immediately. It was the seal Tom used on the letters he would leave under her pillow.

With trembling hands, she opened it.

"My Liv,
If you're reading this, it means fate wasn't so cruel, and it still allows you to find me in small things. Matteo is one of them.
I met him when I needed him most. And he reminded me that even when one is fading, they can still bring light to someone else.
He knows many of our stories. I told him because I thought that, if I could no longer be with you, he could remind you of them with the innocence you sometimes forgot to have.
Promise me something, Liv: when you feel alone, look at the world through the eyes with which Matteo sees it.
And keep writing... for you, for him, for us.
Forever yours,
Tom."

Olivia pressed the letter to her chest and looked at the boy.

"Thank you, Matteo. You don't know what this means."

"I do know," he replied with a small smile. "Because he also left me things for when I missed him."

They sat there for a while, in silence. Sharing memories of the same sun, the same voice.

And that night, a new line appeared in Olivia's notebook:

"Even when love departs, sometimes it leaves little guardians to watch over it in our absence."