All Chapters of When the Aurora Falls on No Man’s Land: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Stella's POVHalf an hour later, Ethan Spencer came home.“Stella Winters, rebook the tickets. Stop making a scene.”“I’m not rebooking them.”I pushed the old hard drive to the corner of the table.“For four Februaries in a row, you took 3,200 photos in Iceland. She changed into twenty-four different outfits.”Ethan paused.“Linda understands composition. She’s the easiest model for me to work with.”“Easy enough that you had to edit the light on every strand of her hair?”“That was for work.”He took off his coat and walked over to sit on the couch.“Are you seriously going to pick a fight over something work-related?”I said nothing.I walked to the entryway and pulled open the drawer on the left.A set of keys lay quietly inside, attached to a StellaLou keychain.“Whose keys are these?”Ethan glanced at them.“Linda’s. Her fingerprint lock always runs out of battery, so she left a spare with me.”“Her fingerprint lock runs out of battery, so her spare key is in ou

I splashed cold water on my face, then walked out of the restroom.At the end of the hallway, Ethan was paying the bill at the front desk.Linda stood beside him. With complete ease, she reached into the pocket of his coat and took out his car keys.“Ethan, I’ll go start the car and turn on the heat. It’s freezing outside.”“Go ahead. Turn on the passenger seat warmer too.”Ethan didn’t even look up. He was still checking the bill.The understanding between them was so natural, like water flowing over flat ground without the slightest resistance.I walked over just as Ethan finished paying.“Let’s go home,” he said, glancing at me.When we reached the underground parking garage, Linda was already sitting in the passenger seat.She had kicked off her heels and changed into a pair of fluffy flats.When she saw me coming, she smiled apologetically.“Stella, I have an old ankle injury, so I can’t wear heels for too long. The passenger seat has more legroom, and I can stretch my

Around noon, Ethan stepped inside, a gust of winter chill following him through the door.He carried a steaming takeout container of seafood chowder, its warmth fogging the lid against the cold.“Stella, come eat. I waited in line for half an hour to get this for you.”The apartment was silent.No one answered.Ethan paused in the middle of changing his shoes.He set the takeout container on the dining table, then pushed open the bedroom door.The bed was neat, without the slightest sign that anyone had slept in it.The closet door was half open.He walked over and found that every piece of clothing that belonged to me was gone.In the bathroom, my toothbrush, towels, and skincare products had all disappeared too.Only his messy collection of bottles and jars remained, along with Linda’s pink toothbrush, standing there awkwardly in the holder.Ethan’s face darkened.He strode back into the living room.Only then did he notice what had been left on the coffee table.It wa

Hawaii in winter was as warm as spring.I joined a top local visual arts agency as an art director.In fact, they had sent me an offer six months ago.But back then, for Ethan’s studio and for that wedding I had been preparing, I had turned it down.Now, I was simply taking back what should have been mine all along.At three in the afternoon, I was directing an outdoor magazine shoot.“Director Winters, is the lighting okay?” the photographer asked me.“Darken the right side a little more. Bring out the model’s jawline,” I said, my eyes fixed on the monitor.“Stella.”A voice, hoarse to the extreme, sounded behind me.I didn’t turn around.The voice came closer, accompanied by hurried breathing.“Stella Winters!”Someone grabbed my arm and yanked me backward.I turned around.Ethan stood in front of me.He was wearing nothing but a thin shirt and a trench coat. His eyes were sunken, and his jaw was covered in dark stubble.He looked like a vagrant who had escaped some

Stella's POVThe doorbell rang three times.Then the door opened.I was wearing loungewear, a cup of hot coffee in my hand.When I saw Ethan standing there, I wasn’t surprised.He had lost so much weight that he looked almost unrecognizable. His eyes held a broken, feverish desperation.“Stella.”He dropped to one knee on the cold marble floor of the hallway.Then he opened the expensive velvet box in his hand.The pink diamond inside caught the hallway lights and flashed with a blinding brilliance.“I bought a new wedding ring.“It’s not a plain band this time. It’s a pink diamond.“The same style as the picture you sent me before.”His voice was thick with emotion, and his hands trembled slightly.“I know I was a bastard before.“I didn’t know how to appreciate you. I took everything you did for me for granted.“These past few days, my stomach hurt so badly I thought I was going to die. That was when I finally realized I can’t live without you.”“Please forgive me ju