The Ghosts We Bury (Episode 1)

✨ In the premiere episode of Echoes of Us, Camila Luna Morales seems to have it all—power, prestige, and the armor of a flawless public persona. But during a glittering gala at a Manhattan hotel, her carefully constructed world begins to unravel when a ghost from her past appears, threatening to crack the mask she’s worn for two decades.

🖋️When writing this first episode, I wanted it to feel like a collision—between past and present, between performance and truth, between Camila Morales and the girl she used to be.

When I created Camila, I envisioned a woman who had survived heartbreak not by healing, but by evolving. Camila isn’t just a character navigating a love story; she’s a woman who has rewritten her own history to survive. The woman she presents to the world—Luna Morales, Editor-in-Chief—is sharp, strategic, and untouchable. But beneath the designer labels and magazine gloss is Camila: a girl from the Bronx who once believed in wild, reckless love.

And like so many of us, she’s learned to survive through curation: curated looks, curated feelings, curated silence.

The gala scene at the Helmsworth Hotel is more than an inciting incident—it’s a rupture. The moment her mask begins to slip.

Sebastián’s reappearance isn’t just a romantic twist—it’s a threat to the narrative Camila has built. He’s the only person who knew her before she learned how to hide, how to win, how to forget.

This episode isn’t about rekindled romance—it’s about emotional whiplash. It's about the raw, disorienting force of confronting the “what ifs” you buried long ago.

Writing the moment she sees him again was an emotional balancing act. It’s not just shock or disbelief. It’s the return of everything she’s buried: innocence, longing, rage, unfinished grief. Sebastián doesn’t just represent a person—he represents a former life, and a former self.

The decision to have Camila run was crucial. It’s a primal response, not calculated or elegant. It’s the moment Luna dissolves, and Camila resurfaces. And that’s the real beginning of this series—not just the return of Sebastián, but the return of Camila to herself.

The cab ride back to Brooklyn was particularly emotional to write. There’s a unique kind of heartbreak in realizing that despite all the growth, accolades, and strength you’ve gained, one look—one person—can transport you back to your most fragile self. I wanted listeners to feel the war inside her: between the woman she’s become and the girl who never stopped wanting answers.

This story was never just about Sebastián returning. It’s about Camila returning to herself.

Episode 1 is the first crack in the armor—the point where grief, longing, identity, and truth all start to bleed together. And as a writer, that’s the space I love to live in: where things get complicated, where characters stop performing.

🎙️ MY FAVORITE LINES

• “They don't see Camila, the girl from The Bronx who once shared cheap wine from plastic cups and dreamed of love more than power.”

• “He let me mourn him. He let me build this whole life on a foundation of grief.”

🔍 FOOD FOR THOUGHT

What do you do when the love of your life—someone you believed was dead—walks back into your world and exposes the parts of you you've fought to bury? And more importantly… is Camila ready to uncover why Sebastián disappeared in the first place?

💔 Echoes of Us is about more than romance—it’s about memory, identity, and the emotional ruins we try to build futures on.

Thank you for stepping into Camila’s world with me.

Writing this story has been like holding a mirror to all the versions of myself that I've left behind in order to survive—and asking what it would take to bring them home again.

Echoes of Us is a love story, yes—but it’s also a story about memory, identity, grief, and the courage it takes to feel deeply in a world that rewards distance.

If you felt something in this first episode—whether it was longing, recognition, or the quiet ache of nostalgia—I hope you’ll keep listening. There’s so much more to uncover, and Camila’s journey is only just beginning.

Until next time,

With love and truth,

Azaleah Moon 🌺