Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Grief Counselor’s a Liar: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

Elijah Black smelled the grief before he saw anyone. It clung to the basement hallway of St. Catherine’s Church like damp fabric and old sorrow. The subtle mix of cold coffee, stale carpet, and quiet misery settled around him as he paused with his hand on the doorknob. His pulse remained steady, his breathing was even. His heart felt silent, as if it had been wrapped in frost.On the other side of the door, he heard soft movements. Someone shifted in a chair. Someone else opened a pack of tissues. The faint scrape of shoes on linoleum echoed through the thin wood. Every sound carried a story he did not want to learn.He opened the door and stepped inside.Yellow fluorescent lights flickered overhead in a low hum. They cast a muted glow over the circle of folding chairs in the center of the room. A cardboard box of tissues sat on a small stool. A battered coffeepot sat in the corner as if no one remembered how long it had been there.Eight people looked up the moment he entered.Dr. Pa

Jaxon Reed did not show up on Tuesday.Elijah noticed the difference the moment he stepped into the basement. The air felt flatter, chairs seemed smaller. Almost as if the night was waiting for something to disrupt the peace, the room felt too tidy.His empty seat was once again empty. It had never mattered before. Now it pulled at him like a quiet question.He sat in his usual chair. His posture was straight, breathing was even, but his expression remained unreadable. Yet the wolf inside him lifted its head and scanned the air with restless curiosity.Dr. Chen greeted the group with her soft voice and steady eyes. “Let’s begin.”Sarah went first. She spoke about cleaning her son’s room and finding a shirt that still smelled faintly of his detergent. Her hands trembled as she described pressing the fabric to her chest.Robert talked about his garden, and how empty the small patch felt without his husband beside him. Curtis, the man who preferred to stand behind the circle, remained si

Elijah arrived at the basement before everyone else.The room sat in silence. The chairs were arranged in their familiar circle. The faint smell of coffee drifted from the corner. The air felt still, as if the room waited for something that had not happened yet.He tried to tell himself he was early only because he needed silence. That lie lasted all of three seconds.The truth was simple.He wanted to know whether Jaxon would come back after what had transpired between them.He sat in his usual chair. His eyes remained on the empty space beside him. The wolf inside him paced again, slow and deliberate, as if preparing for something it could not name yet.People trickled in one by one. Margaret, Sarah, Robert, Curtis. They filled the circle in their slow, familiar rhythm. Their grief created a steady hum in the air, the same as every week.Still, the seat next to Elijah stayed empty.The moment felt suspended. It irritated him. It unsettled him. It crawled under his skin in a way he c

Elijah saw no reason to hurry that Thursday, but he felt the urgency anyway. His morning began with numbers, contracts and quiet nods across polished tables. His afternoon dissolved into a series of brief conversations that required answers he gave almost automatically. His mind and body moved through the motions, his instinct refused to settle.The wolf had not stopped pacing since Tuesday.He remembered the East Quarter alley with its sharp scent of exhaust and rain. He remembered the faded theater poster with a name that did not belong to the man who had sat beside him for three sessions. He remembered standing in the shadows and knowing Jaxon had lived in those streets long before the grief circle.Yet he had not found him.The wolf rarely grew quiet. That day, it had gone still in a way that felt like warning.By evening, Elijah drove toward St. Catherine’s with a steadiness he did not feel. The sun was lowering, and a soft golden hue lay across the pavement. The church stood wit

The meeting blurred.Elijah left the circle with only scattered impressions. Margaret had spoken about a photograph she finally took down. Sarah had mentioned the day when she forgot to cry. Robert had confessed that he almost hummed in the kitchen again. Jaxon had been there beside him, warm and present, making a quiet joke that only Elijah heard.The details slid out of focus as soon as they climbed the stairs.Jaxon pushed the door open and stepped into the cool night. “Walk me,” he said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.Elijah could have refused. He did not.They fell into step along the sidewalk. The street outside the church was calm. A line of trees caught the wind and stirred gently. Cars passed in the distance, their engines softened by space.“Do you feel different?” Jaxon asked after a few moments.“From what?” Elijah replied.“From the man who sat in the back and refused to say more than three words,” Jaxon said. “The one I met on my first day in there.”Elij