Chapter 4

Julian made for a great tour guide.

Unfortunately, he only agreed to guide me for half a day.

When I stepped out the next morning, he was nowhere to be found.

For an innkeeper, he seemed far busier than anyone else in town.

I desperately needed company right now—honestly, anyone would do.

Whenever my mind wandered toward Ethan, I had to scramble frantically for distractions.

We had grown up together, after all; his presence had been woven into the fabric of my life for as long as I could remember.

No matter how hard I tried, the moment silence settled around me, his name seeped back into my thoughts like poison.

After putting on a brave face of indifference for days, my emotional dam finally broke.

Most guests staying at the inn were couples or travel groups; nobody was traveling solo like me.

It only made my isolation feel starker.

I sat in the quiet courtyard well past midnight, my head spinning with memories of Ethan.

In the early morning hours, the temperature plummeted. As I shifted my stiff, freezing limbs, my eyes locked directly with Julian's.

He was dragging a massive, heavy black plastic bag across the stone floor.

For a second, I thought I had caught him disposing of a body—especially when he instantly scowled, looking intensely alert and dangerous.

Instead, his voice broke the quiet: "Why are you crying?"

Startled by his words, I raised a hand to my cheek and realized it was soaked with tears.

I wiped my face haphazardly with the back of my hand.

He had already hauled the heavy bag into a locked ground-floor workshop and walked back out. "A bad breakup?"

I blinked. "How did you know?"

A lot of people in high society knew Ethan; I suddenly worried Julian might be connected to that circle.

He said, "Most people who come here are couples. When someone shows up alone and sits outside crying her eyes out in the middle of the night, it's almost always a broken heart."

Relief washed over me knowing he didn't recognize Ethan. Coincidentally, I desperately needed an outlet to vent. "Something like that. I had a fiancé, but he didn't love me. So, I decided to let go."

Julian nodded slowly. "Somehow, I doubt it was that simple.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. Just... don't cry so loudly that you wake the other guests. And don't... do anything reckless."

Looking at his guarded expression, I had a feeling he carried his own hidden scars.

It made sense. We were both grown adults; who didn't have a past?

Julian stood up. "I'm firing up the kiln tomorrow. If you're bored, you can tag along. Treat it as a distraction."

A simple gesture of kindness from a man I had known for just a few days rescued me from the dark that night.

Ever since Ethan’s father passed away, the last person who had ever treated me with genuine care had vanished from this earth.

Ethan had grown progressively bolder in his contempt, treating me with increasing cruelty.

I had tried so hard to find warmth in him. Whenever his anger became too much to bear, I would fantasize about him caring for me.

I fed myself hollow lies just to survive another day.

Eventually, though, the delusions crumbled, and I couldn't fool myself anymore.

Seeing me remain quiet, Julian probably assumed I was deeply troubled. "Are you dealing with depression? I know a great therapist. I can give you their contact info."

His unintended warmth under the midnight sky pulled me back from the edge.

He reminded me that kindness still existed in this world.

I had survived so many years of agony; I could survive this.

I refused to shed another tear over Ethan Vance.

The next morning, I hopped into his truck and rode out to the countryside.

Only then did I learn the massive black bags weren't hiding a corpse—they were packed with ceramic clay.

Julian was a ceramic artist. A quick online search revealed he was actually a prominent, award-winning figure in the art world.

I had brought my camera along and spent the day documenting his entire process, from shaping the clay on the wheel to firing the kiln.

The next few days were genuinely peaceful, and Ethan slowly faded from my thoughts.

Yet Ethan’s toxicity seemed to have a gravitational pull.

Just as I was finally beginning to move on, he found a bizarre way to barge back into my life.