Chapter 21

For an entire week, Julian shut himself inside his empty villa. He didn't eat or drink and survived purely on alcohol to numb himself day after day. Now, he was curled up on the couch with empty whiskey bottles scattered around him. His stomach burned like it was on fire, but he didn't feel a thing. It had been a month since Wendy had left, and in that month, Julian had lost 20 pounds. His eyes were sunken, stubble covered his jaw, and the straight line of his spine had collapsed, as if someone had pulled the bones right out of him. He kept thinking about the little things Wendy had done for him—how she'd used to slip a hand-warmer into the pocket of his suit in the winter, and how she'd tiptoe over to bring him a mug of warm milk whenever he worked late. Those tiny kind acts had all become thorns lodged in his chest, and every memory stabbed him breathless. … Meanwhile, Adrain had become a completely different person too. He'd deleted all the contacts of the hundreds of women i