Chapter 8

I had no idea what was happening with Tristan, Julian, and Vivienne back on the Mainland.

The day I left the house, I boarded a plane to a small town in the Westfjords of Iceland. Two years had passed since then. I made a modest living as a painter, sketching portraits for the tourists who passed through our quiet streets. The language barrier had been difficult at first, but I had fully settled into life here now.

"Long time no see, Rose. Can you paint a portrait of me?"

I looked up sharply. Julian Sterling sat in the chair across from my easel, wearing a soft, sad smile. I never thought I would see him here, in this remote little town on the other side of the world.

After a long moment, I picked up my brush and started painting. It wasn't a coincidence. He had tracked me down.

Julian stared at me, his voice quiet and heavy with unspoken emotion. "I've been looking for you for two years, Rose. I searched every corner of the Mainland first, then every country in Eurasia. I remembered you once said you wanted to live somewhere you could see the Northern Lights. That was the only way I finally found you."

He talked for a long time, but when I offered no response, he fell into an embarrassed silence.

It took me half an hour to finish the portrait. Setting down my brush, I spoke to him for the first time.

"That will be twenty dollars."

Julian took the painting but remained seated for a long time, making no move to leave. Finally, I sighed.

"You have your painting. Now go. You're scaring off my customers."

The second the words left my mouth, a baby's cry sounded from behind me. I stood up quickly and rushed over. My one-year-old daughter, Ruby, stumbled toward me with her little arms outstretched.

The nanny trailing behind her looked apologetic. "She kept asking for Mama. I couldn't keep her away."

I picked Ruby up, holding her tight against my chest.

Julian smiled softly. "I knew you would never terminate the pregnancy. You've always been so fierce, but you have the softest heart of anyone I know. No matter what happened between you and Tristan, she's your daughter. You would never hurt her."

He was right. Two years prior, in that hospital, I had coerced the doctor into forging a stillbirth report. I used the remains from a patient who had suffered a miscarriage, had them preserved in formaldehyde, and presented them to Tristan. I had faked the procedure just to get him off my back and finally escape.

"Can I hold her?" Julian asked.

I froze for a long moment before sighing and handing Ruby over to him. He was incredibly nervous, his hands shaking as if he were holding the most precious thing in the world. I guided him on how to support her weight, and his face lit up as he babbled to her softly.

"Hey, little one. I'm your uncle. Can you say uncle?"

He stayed until the sun went down, only preparing to leave when Ruby finally fell asleep. Before he walked away, he told me the truth about everything that had happened four years prior.

He had only married Vivienne to secure a family merger, as it was the only way he could gain full control of Sterling Enterprises. The bitter irony of it all? Tristan had been obsessed with Vivienne for years, but Vivienne had only ever loved Julian. When Julian and I fell in love, Vivienne had despised me for it.

"So two years ago, Tristan—who would do anything Vivienne asked—married you on her orders. It was all designed to break you, to force me to let you go for good. Even the plan to take the baby was her idea. It's all my fault, Rose. I am so sorry. If I could go back four years, I would never have left you at that altar. I would choose you, every single time."

I just smiled and said nothing. Maybe he still loved me. But what was done, was done. There was no going back.

Recognizing my silence for what it was, he left with a bitter smile. He kept looking back at me as he walked down the street. It was a street only a few hundred meters long, yet it took him almost two hours to walk it.