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Chapter 131

Author: Ranya Vale
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-11 11:41:51

Julian did not tell me right away. For a few days, he kept whatever he had found to himself, letting me move through the boutique and the house as if everything was the same. I noticed the shift in him almost immediately. His replies were slower. His eyes lingered on things in the room without really seeing them. He still asked about my day, but the way he listened felt like he was only half in the conversation, the other half working through something in his head.

I didn’t push. Over the years, I had learned that Julian worked like a tide when it came to difficult truths. Sometimes he crashed them onto the shore without warning. Other times he pulled them back, letting them gather force in private before he let them out. This time, I could tell he was holding them back, measuring his words before he let them come near me.

When he finally spoke, it was late in the evening. We had both showered after a long day, and the living room was lit only by the low lamp in the corner. The televi
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    The next morning, the rain had cleared. The streets looked scrubbed clean, the sky pale and wide. I opened the curtains in the living room while Julian was still in bed, letting the light spill in and chase away the last of the night. The apartment felt unusually still, as though it knew there were things waiting to be said.I made coffee and sat at the kitchen table, my hands wrapped around the warm mug. My mind kept circling back to our conversation from the night before, not in a frantic way, but like a tide that kept returning. We had gone to sleep without deciding anything, but the weight of the question hadn’t lessened. It was just sitting there, patient, waiting for us to pick it back up.Julian came out a little later, hair still mussed from sleep, a T-shirt soft with age. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat across from me without speaking at first. There was a kind of gentleness to the quiet between us, not strained but deliberate, as if neither of us wanted to rush int

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    The rain had stopped by the time I left the boutique, but the air still smelled like it had been holding onto the storm all day. The sidewalks glistened faintly under the streetlamps, each puddle catching its own small reflection of the light. I carried a paper bag with two pastries from the bakery on the corner, the kind Julian liked to have with tea at night. The streets were quieter than usual, the shops already closed, the city moving into the slower rhythm it only seemed to find after dark.When I reached the apartment, the lights inside were already on. Julian was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of tea, his reading glasses low on his nose, flipping through a folder. He looked up as I walked in, and his face softened in that way it always did when he saw me after a long day. I set the pastries on the counter and hung my coat by the door, the familiar weight of home settling around me.“You’re home earlier than I thought,” I said, filling the kettle for more tea.“Finished

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