Chapter 11

Jason's POVShe went rigid immediately.I could feel her trembling slightly with pain.But I didn't let go.I pressed my face against her shoulder, and for the first time in our marriage, I held her with something like need.It had always been her coming toward me.Her crawling into my arms after nightmares, shaking.Turning the smallest response from me into enough reason to keep enduring.Now I was holding her, and all I could feel was her body rigid against me, keeping still only to protect her wound.“Is there really no way back?”I heard how low my own voice had gone.“Stay.”“I'll ask Vicky to leave.”“Last night won't happen again.”“I won't treat you that way anymore.”Even as I said it, I knew it was too late.She'd already stopped needing to hear it.Elena didn't fight me. Didn't turn around.She just stood there.After a long time, she spoke.“Jason. I don't want to spend my life begging for someone to love me.”My fingers tightened.She went on.“For three years I waited fo

Chapter 12

Jason's POVAfter Elena left, I followed her. At a distance.I knew she wouldn't want that.So I kept away.Just across the street, or through the window of a café opposite a gallery, watching her rebuild her life piece by piece.I'd expected her to struggle.She'd taken almost nothing when she left my house.I was wrong.Elena was stronger than I'd given her credit for.She found work at an art gallery. Started out just organizing frames, restoring old paintings, setting up exhibitions.Before long, the gallery owner came across her sketchbook.That afternoon she was standing by a window, leafing quietly through her own work. The light fell across her face — and there was more life in it than there had ever been beside me.The owner talked with her for a long time.The next day, her paintings were hanging in a corner of the gallery.Then more people stopped in front of them.Someone bought the first one.Someone commissioned a second.She was no longer the unremarkable, quiet wife sta

Chapter 13

Jason's POVAfter that day, I kept my word. I stopped appearing in front of her.But I still had things sent.Medicine she needed. She sent all of it back, without exception.I arranged a better exhibition spot through the gallery owner. The next day, the money came back the same way it went.Elena knew it was me.She refused every time, cleanly.That feeling of being unwanted was harder to endure than I had expected.Meanwhile, Vicky kept reaching out.At first she sent messages through others.She couldn't sleep. She was afraid, alone in the house.I didn't go back. Didn't reply.Until one day she walked into my study herself.She stood in the doorway, eyes red.“Jason, what exactly is this about?”I set down the papers.“Leave.”She didn't move.She stared at me, then let out a strange, short laugh.“You were obsessed with me for years. You couldn't have me, so you married someone with my face.”“Now I'm back, I'm free, and you don't want to look at me anymore?”My brows drew tight.

Chapter 14

Elena's POVJason found his way to the gallery while I was cleaning my brushes.Outside, the afternoon sun was at its brightest. The street gleamed. The gallery windows caught great sheets of gold.I'd just finished two canvases. They were on the wall. A few customers stood in front of them, voices low.I stood at my worktable and slowly wiped the paint from each brush handle with a soft cloth.Then the wind chime above the door rang.I looked up.Jason stood in the entrance.He was in a long black coat, hat pulled low, hiding under both. He was holding a large bunch of white roses, which made him look, for all his composed elegance, oddly out of place.Vampires are sensitive to sunlight.He had always been attended to: cars arranged in advance, blackout curtains drawn. He belonged to the night. To those dark, ornate vampire gatherings.Not standing outside a human art gallery, wrapped in a coat, avoiding the light.But he'd come anyway.The gallery went quiet.People recognized him.H

Chapter 15

Elena's POVThe gallery was so quiet you could hear the wall clock pendulum.Jason turned to face me. The light in his eyes, that brief recovered hope, faded.“Why?”I said nothing.He stepped closer, voice lower.“You know now that I love you.”“I've dealt with Vicky.”“You still won't come back. Is this about not forgiving me?”I bent to the table and kept arranging my supplies.A deep blue brush had slipped, rolled to the edge. I pressed it back with my fingertip.I felt almost exasperated.“No.”He watched me.I put the brush away and kept my voice even.“Some things, if you say them out loud, only hurt everyone.”“There's no point dredging it up.”“Anyway, I don't love you anymore.”Jason's breath caught. He couldn't accept it.“You're still angry.”I didn't respond.He said:“Elena. I finally know. You're who I love.”“I admit it, I treated you like her shadow.”“But these past months I finally saw clearly what I actually wanted.”I closed the brush case.“Too late.”He stepped f

Chapter 16

Elena's POVLater, I found someone who truly loved me.His name was Adrian. He came to the gallery often.The first time we met, he stood for a long time in front of one of my paintings.That canvas had only a single room, empty. A vase by the window, white lilies almost wilted.Everyone said it was beautiful.Only he asked me:“Were you sad when you painted this?”I didn't have an answer for a long time.It had been so long since anyone paid attention to what I actually felt.He came back to the gallery often after that. Sometimes to buy a painting. Sometimes just to sit in a corner with a coffee.He never disturbed me when I was working.When I was busy, he'd just wait.When I turned down dinner, he smiled.“Next time, then.”No cold look. No disappointment. No silence designed to make me feel guilty.I slowly understood: real love didn't force you to make yourself small.It didn't demand you to be grateful for the occasional warmth.Real love made you feel safe. Because you were see