[EXT. HILLSIDE CEMETERY – SUNSET]
The wind howls gently across the hill, where the sky bleeds into a dusky orange — too warm for the grief rooted in Harriet's chest.
A small group gathers in black, still and silent as the coffin is lowered into the earth.
Harriet doesn't cry — not yet. She just stands there, stone-faced, staring down at the grave of the man who changed her life and left too soon.
Betta clutches Owen's hand beside her, already crying.
Rufei stands a little apart, bruised and stiff, eyes on Harriet — not the grave.
A gust of wind rustles Fred's photo pinned on a white board nearby.
His smile in the photo is soft, rare.
The Fred most of them never saw.
---
[INT. HARRIET'S ROOM – THAT NIGHT]
Harriet sits on the floor with Fred's coat wrapped around her.
She hasn't spoken since the funeral.
The envelope he left behind lies beside her, still open. His silver ring, engraved F.H., rests in her palm.
The last words from the letter burn in her mind:
> "In another life… I'd find you sooner."
Her fingers close around the ring.
Suddenly — the silence breaks.
She sobs.
Quiet at first. Then louder. Ragged. Broken.
Like something inside her finally shattered.
She screams into the coat, clutching it, curling over like she's trying to protect her heart from its own collapse.
BETTA (O.S.) (softly through the door) "Harri… please open the door. Please."
No answer.
Harriet rocks back and forth, whispering Fred's name again and again through sobs.
---
[FLASHBACK – A MOMENT NEVER SHARED]
Fred, weeks before the rescue.
He sits in the dark, candle flickering on his desk.
He records a message on a voice recorder — hidden inside a locket he planned to leave in the vault.
FRED (V.O.)
> "Harriet… if I don't make it back.
Know I loved you. I didn't just fall for you. I belonged to you.
You were the only thing that made me feel alive."
> "I'm not good at saying it out loud. You know that.
But if I could give you peace, even if it meant giving my life — I would.
And I did."
> "And I'd do it again."
---
[INT. VAULT ROOM – ONE WEEK LATER]
Harriet stands in the underground vault her father built — now cleared of danger, guarded.
The old locket is there. She opens it.
The tiny recorder plays his voice.
Alive again, in her ears.
She clutches it to her chest, sinks to her knees, and cries — this time without restraint, without fear.
---
[EXT. SEA CLIFF – EPILOGUE]
One month later.
Harriet scatters Fred's ashes into the wind at the edge of a cliff where cherry blossoms bloom out of season — a spot he once described in a story from his childhood.
A place he dreamed of escaping to.
She stands there in silence, letting the wind hit her face, eyes closed.
HARRIET (whispering) "Thank you… for choosing me."
She presses the ring into the earth, planting it like a promise.
---
[FINAL LINE – VOLUME 1 CLOSES]
> Love does not end with death.
It lingers — in words, in memory, in the breath before a name is spoken.
> And sometimes… in the rain.