After the heartbreak, the happiness. With her deft handling of the dissolution of her high-profile relationship with late-blooming star Dingdong Dantes, Karylle is a picture of sexy cool, quiet calm and collected dignity.

One is almost tempted to sing that old Connie Francis song “Who’s Sorry Now” in tribute to this fabulous young woman. Displaying adorable bravery in the midst of the emotional turmoil that would have broken lesser mortals, she emerges as a woman wronged but with her head held high.

“She handled it with the grace of a woman and not the grief of a child,” says long-time friend and colleague David Cosico of Stages, the company that now manages the multitalented thespian. That composure is kind of expected from someone who is a product of OB Montessori, Poveda and Ateneo de Manila University.

When friends urged her to move on, Karylle stunned them by declaring she was “moving forward.” “I heard a lot of people say ‘move on,’ but I needed a word—forward—that’s more visual and definite in what it means. It’s enough to differentiate forward from backward. It’s a step toward the unknown, an adventure,” Karylle says, with no tinge of bitterness but with a wistfulness that comes with being at peace with herself and her surroundings.

There’s been a lot of movement in Karylle’s life lately, from being under the care of Angeli Valenciano’s Genesis Entertainment to Stages under Carlo Orosa, and from GMA to ABS-CBN. “I moved to Stages first. I’ve maintained my relationship with Tita Angeli. I’ve known her since I was small. I was hoping that the transition would be nice, that there would be no rift. She gave me her blessings and she remains a consultant,” K relates. “When I was invited to perform with Gary V at his silver-anniversary concert, I knew that there was no tampuhan. I’m very grateful for that.”

When Mr. Pure Energy introduced Karylle as the newest Kapamilya, she was met with thunderous applause by the Araneta crowd. Her contract with GMA is on a per-show basis. She bade her good-byes to her SOP family two Sundays ago and will be wrapping up her commitments with Kakasa Ka Ba sa Grade 5? She will be launched in ASAP in December, most likely when her mom, the divine diva Zsa Zsa Padilla, comes back from her US concert tour.

But what excites Karylle no end is the honor of singing the national anthem in the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar de la Hoya fight in Las Vegas. “Manny handpicked me. I was so happy when he first told me that I wanted to shout,” she giggles. Boxing, after all, is in the Padilla bloodline. A great-grandfather was an Olympian and her mom’s dad was the legendary referee in the “Thrilla in Manila.”

“I box,” she says with palpable pride, as part of her fitness regimen. She also jogs, swims and does Pilates.

Her body is sound, the heart has healed. But what is her state of mind? Karylle lets out a nervous laugh, sort of a default response by our de-facto Jennifer Aniston. “There’s been lots of reflections and realizations. It’s been nice to do that whole retreat thing [with a dear friend at Assumption in Baguio], to step back and look at what went on,” she shares. “There was one exercise where I painted a rainbow in a mountain. For its seven colors, I was asked to give something that I was thankful for. All the good things happened just recently. Hurtful as [the breakup] was, good things came out of it.”

Besides gracing the Pacquiao-de la Hoya fight, Karylle is on to bigger and better things. There are major endorsements for a ginormous lifestyle label, a nail spa and a hip watch brand. At her new network, she is set to do the local remake of Lovers in Paris and will likely be a mainstay at ASAP. West Side Story, where she played Maria to critical acclaim, is fielding offers for an Asian tour, as well as a repeat run at the Meralco Theater in July next year.

She could easily have been tabloid target numero uno, but being the well-balanced person that she is, Karylle rises above the fray. She is moving forward. And, she hopes, the rest of us should do the same.