The high school sweetheart 💕

chapter 3

## Chapter 3: The Decision and the Journey 🏙️🚗

For three days, the bright, glossy invitation sat on Jonas’s wooden dining table, staring at him. Every time he walked past it, he felt the same jolt he’d felt at the post office.

Going to the city meant more than just a four-hour drive. It meant potentially seeing Bella for the first time in seven years—since the day her letter and the silver ring had arrived like a cold rain in the middle of harvest. He looked at his hands, calloused and strong from years of work on the cocoa farm. He was a man of the land now, while she had become a woman of the city. Would she even recognize the boy she’d left under the mango tree?

"Jonas, you've been staring at that paper so long it's going to catch fire," his friend Mensah said, leaning against the doorway. Mensah had stayed in the village too, but he lacked Jonas’s quiet intensity.

"It's just a reunion, Mensah," Jonas replied, his voice steady but his heart racing.

"It’s not 'just' a reunion. It's Bella," Mensah countered, his eyes softening. "You’ve built a kingdom here, Jonas. But you’re a king with no queen. Go. See if the spark is still there. Or at least, go and finally blow out the candle so you can move on."

That Friday, Jonas washed his truck until it shone under the afternoon sun. He packed a small bag, including his best suit—the one he’d bought for the District Farmer Awards—and, after a moment of hesitation, he tucked the small wooden box containing the silver ring into the side pocket of his bag.

The drive to the city was a blur of green hills turning into gray concrete. As the buildings grew taller and the traffic grew louder, Jonas felt a tightening in his chest. The city was fast, noisy, and impersonal—everything the village was not.

He checked into a small hotel near the old school grounds. The city lights were bright, but all he could think about was the girl in the yellow dress. Tomorrow, he would find out if the promise under the mango tree still meant anything at all.