I stared at Julian's limp body on my doorstep, blood pooling beneath his head. The decorative vase I'd hurled lay shattered nearby, its jagged pieces glinting in the porch light.
My heart should have been racing with panic. I should have been rushing to help him, to stop the bleeding. That's what the old Aurelia would have done – the loving mate who endured five years of neglect hoping for scraps of affection.
But that Aurelia died alongside Violet.
Instead, a cold, eerie calm washed over me. I felt nothing – no concern, no guilt, no fear. Just... emptiness.
I touched the crystal pendant containing Violet's ashes that Julian had returned to me. The only thing of value he'd given me in months.
"You still defended her," I whispered to his unconscious form. "Even after everything, you chose her lies over my truth."
