Chapter 15

The soup Sienna had spent hours making, along with all her careful gentleness and hope, looked pathetic beside a memory of Trina that wasn't even particularly good. Julian snapped out of it at the sharp noise of the bowl falling. His eyes dropped to the soup splattered across the floor before lifting to Sienna's tearful face. Guilt flickered in his eyes, but more than that, there was a heavy, suffocating helplessness he couldn't shake. He realized Trina's shadow had already seeped into every corner of his life. It had seeped into his thoughts and his habits. No matter how hard he tried to push her out or force himself back onto the "right" path, she could pull him straight into that swamp of memories almost effortlessly. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but every word felt pointless and wrong. In the end, he just shut his eyes, exhausted. A few days later, a pull Julian couldn't explain drove him to the military hospital's records room. He needed to confirm somethi