Chapter 31

He took Sunny and the journal, filling fuller and fuller, and went on.He went to see the northern lights in the north, the seas of flowers in the south, every place she'd written "want to go there someday." At every one he photographed the scenery for her. He had long known she wouldn't be in the photos, and he took them anyway.The blank pages in the journal grew fewer and fewer. Those regrets of hers, the "never mind, going alone is just the same," he filled them in whole, page by page, gently.Vivienne messaged often. The foundation's reading rooms were multiplying, the children helped growing in number. And Sunny, getting on in years, had been sent to live at the first reading room, lying by the sunflowers on the windowsill every day, keeping the children company as they read and basked in the sun.Julian looked at the messages, and as he read, his eyes grew wet.He lifted his head toward a foreign sky and said softly, "Eleanor, do you see? Everything you wanted to do, wanted to s

Chapter 32

The years went by, one after another.The journal was finally written to its last page. Those places she'd never gotten to, every one now bore the line he'd written for her. "Came here for you."Julian had grown old too. His hair had whitened, his back stooped a little. Sunny had passed quietly of old age years before, on a winter's day, beside the sunflowers in the reading room. The children had held a small farewell for it.The foundation had grown lush and far-reaching. His own name gradually faded from it, while the name Eleanor came to be remembered by more and more people.That year, he stopped his wandering and returned to the city he had been away from for so many years.He didn't go first to the house long left empty. He went first to the flower shop, the way he had on every anniversary he remembered, and chose a large bunch of sunflowers, blooming just right.Holding that bunch of sunflowers, step by step, he walked toward the cemetery on the city's edge.

Chapter 33

In the cemetery, before the headstone carved "Wife of Julian Ashford," all was clean, not a single fallen leaf. Someone had been keeping it swept all these years.Julian carried the sunflowers over, slowly crouched, and laid the flowers gently before the stone. He took the journal, filled cover to cover, from inside his coat, and together with the pen engraved "Nora," left at the stone years ago and later taken back into his keeping, set them at the foot of the headstone."Eleanor, I've come to see you."His voice was old and gentle."The places you wanted to go, I've walked them all for you. It's all written in this book. Take your time reading it. It was beautiful, truly, just like you said. And I set up a foundation for you, helped so many children. Sunny kept them company for a good few years too. I think you'd be happy."The sun sank in the west, and the golden afterglow spilled over the headstone and over his head of white hair.He leaned against the stone and sat down, closed hi

All Chapters of I Made a Deal With the Devil: Chapter 31 - Chapter 33

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33