Chapter 6: The Flight Back Into the Past
Ava knew Julian recognized her before he spoke.
She felt the shift in the air.
One moment, she was reviewing a confidential merger proposal on her tablet. The next, his shadow fell across the aisle.
“Ava?”
She looked up.
Julian Hart stood beside her seat, handsome, polished, and unwelcome.
For a heartbeat, the old version of her woke up—the young wife who used to study his face for warmth, who used to believe silence meant stress instead of contempt.
Then she remembered Lucas, Caleb, and Noah waiting in Los Angeles.
The past lost its power.
“Julian,” she said.
His eyes moved over her clothes, her calm face, the slim diamond watch on her wrist. He noticed enough to be curious, but not enough to be afraid.
Vanessa appeared behind him.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Julian smiled.
“Not at all. Just an old memory.”
Ava turned back to her tablet.
That annoyed him.
During takeoff, he tried politeness first.
“How have you been?”
“Fine.”
“Still in Boston?”
“No.”
“Married again?”
Ava paused.
“No.”
He leaned back, satisfied for a reason she understood too well.
To Julian, an unmarried woman was unfinished. A woman without a man beside her was available for pity.
Vanessa soon joined the game.
She asked whether Ava was traveling for work or “personal reasons.” She mentioned luxury hotels in a tone that suggested Ava could not afford them. She touched Julian’s arm whenever she spoke, reminding Ava of the night she cried in the Hart foyer.
Ava answered almost nothing.
Her silence was not weakness.
It was evidence gathering.
Every insult told her Julian had not changed. Every smirk told her Vanessa had grown comfortable living inside a lie. Every careless sentence confirmed that neither of them had any idea who she had become.
When the plane began descending, Julian lowered his voice.
“I hope life taught you something, Ava.”
She looked at him then.
“It did.”
He smiled. “Good.”
Ava closed her tablet.
“It taught me that losing the wrong people can be the beginning of getting everything back.”
Julian’s smile faded for half a second.
May you like
Then the plane landed.
And fate led him straight to the VIP curb where three little boys were waiting.
