Chapter 6: A New Storm Begins

Harrison sat with his coffee, staring out the window until Julia called his name twice.

He snapped out of it.

“What are you daydreaming about? Your coffee’s gone cold.”

Julia smiled, taking his cup and replacing it with a fresh one.

He sipped it, but even though the coffee was good, it tasted like nothing. Like nothing at all.

Julia cradled her own cup and sat beside him.

“Your wife still won’t come home?”

He frowned immediately: “Don’t mention her.”

Julia’s eyes were always so calm, making others feel at ease just by looking at her.

“Harrison, I’ve thought about it for a long time… I’m going back to Paris.”

“Why all of a sudden?”

She just smiled gently: “I’m not happy, so I want the people I care about to be.”

“You and your wife have been married for three years, but ever since I came back, everything’s fallen apart…”

“What does that have to do with you? She’s the one who’s spoiled and reckless, always getting her way because the elders dote on her.”

Thinking of how Grandpa had chewed him out on the phone, Harrison grew even more irritated.

He hadn’t expected Lillian to actually go see Grandpa. She seemed determined to go up against him.

But he’d never thought about divorcing her. If she wanted to make a fuss, he’d let her. She’d get over it in a few days anyway.

But now, everything was spinning out of his control. He hated that.

“Lucky her.”

Julia suddenly let out a soft laugh, but as she did, a tear fell.

“Julia, why are you crying?”

“I’m just jealous of your wife.”

She looked up, tears shining in her eyes, making her look even more fragile. So fragile. Like glass.

Thinking of her past, Harrison felt a pang of pity.

“Her parents died young, but she had your whole family to love and protect her.”

Julia rarely showed such self-pity.

“Unlike me… I never had anyone to stand up for me.”

She choked up: “No one ever showed me a way out when I was desperate.”

Harrison felt a twist in his gut. He wanted to say something, but the words caught in his throat.

“Harrison, I once said I’d never regret anything.”

“But now, I think I do.”

“If I hadn’t gotten rid of that child back then, would we have had another chance…?”

“Julia.”

He suddenly put down his cup and stood up.

“It’s all in the past. There’s no ‘what if.’”

“You still blame me, don’t you?”

“For making you lose our child, for leaving without a word?”

He shook his head: “I never blamed you. Back then, I was the one who wronged you. No matter what you did, I could never hold it against you.”

Julia broke down in tears, throwing herself into his arms: “No, I know you’ve always hated me… I was too stubborn, couldn’t let anything go. When I saw Lillian flaunting her marriage to you, I lost control.”

Her sobs broke between sentences. Harrison’s mind flashed with regret. He held her gently, feeling the weight of her pain.

“Harrison, after the baby was gone, I regretted it immediately.”

“But it was too late…”

“Did you know? All these years, I keep dreaming about him.”

“He’s a little boy, looks just like you. In my dreams, he asks me why I didn’t want him.”

She cried harder: “Harrison, do you think he’ll ever forgive me?”

He gently cupped her face, full of tenderness, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

In the end, he tasted the salt of her tears.

“He’ll forgive you. He knows you didn’t mean to give him up.”

“Will he come back? Will he want to come back?”

“He will. He’ll come back…”

Julia rose on tiptoe, wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply.

“All these years apart, I never had anyone else… Let’s bring him back, okay?”

She let her hand slip, pulling her clothes off her shoulder, revealing skin as white as snow. But at that moment, Harrison suddenly thought of Lillian—the wild, chaotic night after drinking, her young, tender body slowly revealed in the darkness. Why am I thinking of her now?

He didn’t know why, but at the very moment his old lover was finally opening her heart to him, he thought of his wife.

When Julia guided his hand to her chest, he jerked back as if burned.

His phone, buzzing non-stop, was a lifeline.

“Sorry, let me take this.”

Julia bit her lip, a wave of disappointment and unease rising in her chest. But remembering the look of pity in his eyes just now, she steadied herself. Love didn’t last, she knew. But a man’s guilt and tenderness—those were the things she could count on.

She would make sure Harrison felt he owed her, felt sorry for her, for the rest of his life. She would be like Maple Heights—rooted there, impossible to erase.

But his next words sent her straight back into the abyss. Just like that.

“What did you say? Lillian just fainted? The doctor says she’s pregnant?”

The words hung in the air, shattering everything. Julia’s world narrowed to a single point, her hopes slipping away like snow melting in the sun. Harrison’s mind raced, torn between past and present, love and duty, the weight of his choices pressing down on him like the endless winter outside. No way out.