This chapter follows Dre Ramirez through his whirlwind romance with Isabela Cruz – a dazzling, international love that gave him hope again… but ultimately left him broken and searching for something deeper.
Manila, 1994
There are loves that begin like sunrises—slow, glowing, beautiful.
And there are loves that crash in like a typhoon, wild and full of thunder.
Isabela Cruz was the latter.
A Queen in the Crowd
They met at a film awards night. Dre was presenting. She was the guest of honor—a former international beauty queen who had just moved to the Philippines after a brief acting stint in Spain.
Everyone in the room was drawn to her.
But it wasn’t just her beauty.
It was the way she stood still, like the chaos of fame never touched her.
Dre was used to attention. But with Isabela, he wasn’t the star—he was curious.
So he approached.
“Welcome to Manila,” he said, smiling.
She turned, her accent soft but confident. “I’ve never been welcomed with such kind eyes.”
He laughed. “You haven’t met enough liars yet.”
She tilted her head, amused. “Are you one?”
“Used to be. Trying to recover.”
She smiled.
And just like that, the storm began.
Fast & Fearless
Their relationship moved quickly.
Lunches turned to late-night drives. Public appearances became whispered getaways. The press had a field day—International Queen and Local Idol?—but they didn’t care.
Isabela was different from Elena, different from Jenny.
She didn’t ask Dre to be fixed.
She liked him as he was—wounded, imperfect, cynical.
“You don’t need saving,” she told him once. “You just need honesty.”
With her, Dre laughed more. Slept better. Dreamed again.
But he also ignored the red flags.
They argued over little things. She was fiercely independent; he had just started wanting roots. She wanted the world. He wanted a home.
Still, he clung to her.
Because it was the first time in years he felt worthy of being loved again.
The Island Escape
One weekend, they escaped to Palawan.
They rented a small villa, cooked their own food, danced under the stars with no music.
That night, after swimming in the ocean under moonlight, Isabela turned to him and said:
“I think I love you, Dre.”
He froze.
Not because he didn’t feel it, but because he did—and it terrified him.
She kissed his silence. “You don’t have to say it back.”
But he whispered, “I do. I do love you.”
And in that moment, they believed it could last.
The Cracks
The reality hit back fast.
Isabela’s career pulled her to Hong Kong, then Los Angeles, then back to Puerto Rico. Dre was rebuilding his career and raising Elias. Schedules clashed. Trust frayed.
“I feel like I’m chasing a ghost,” she told him over the phone.
“You knew I had a son,” he snapped. “You knew I couldn’t just leave.”
“And you knew I had dreams.”
They hung up without resolution.
Weeks passed.
Then one day, he opened a tabloid and saw her—smiling beside another man, holding hands at a charity gala in Madrid.
No headlines. Just a photograph.
No betrayal. Just… a quiet truth.
She had moved on.
The Break
They didn’t have a dramatic ending. No screaming. No closure.
Just one final phone call.
“I still love you,” he said.
“I’ll always love you,” she replied.
“But we are not what the other needs.”
And she was right.
She needed flight.
He needed roots.
They had mistaken passion for permanence.
Aftermath
Dre fell into depression.
He didn’t eat well. Didn’t show up to a film shoot and was nearly blacklisted.
He told people he was fine. Smiled for cameras. Wrote inspirational quotes on his interviews.
But inside, he was breaking.
He would lie awake at night staring at the ceiling, wondering why love always seemed to slip through his fingers.
Jenny had needed him too soon.
Elena had come too late.
Isabela had asked him to follow—but he couldn’t abandon his son to chase her shadow.
Maybe love just wasn’t for him.
A Letter He Never Sent
Dear Isabela,
I still remember the salt in your hair. The way you hummed love songs without knowing the words. The way your eyes searched mine when you were unsure.
I couldn’t follow you—not because I didn’t love you—but because I finally loved myself enough not to leave behind the boy who needed me most.
You were light. You were fire. You were everything wild and untamable.
Thank you for showing me that even broken people can be wanted.
Love,
Dre
He never sent it.
He just folded it and placed it beside the box of Elena’s letters.
Redemption Begins in Silence
After Isabela, Dre went silent for a while.
He stopped chasing fame. Took a year off.
Every morning, he’d walk Elias to school. Cook his own meals. Water the plants in his tiny condo balcony. It was the quietest year of his life—and the most healing.
He had loved three women.
Each had left a mark.
But none had stayed.
Because he wasn’t ready to stay himself.
One Year Later
He walked into a TV studio for an interview about his latest independent film.
The producer introduced him to the host: Clara Santiaguel.
They shook hands.
She smiled.
“Hello, Dre.”
Something in her eyes felt familiar.
Not in the I’ve-seen-you-on-TV kind of way.
But in the I’ve-been-waiting-for-you kind of way.
He didn’t fall in love instantly.
He just stopped falling apart.
And maybe that was the beginning of everything.
