CHAPTER 46 Rivalry

　　Avery's POV

　　The air felt thick, heavy with a tension so palpable it sent a chill down my spine. I still couldn't fully process what had just happened.

　　Julian, the hooded man from the bar, the stranger who had poured out his pain and sorrows to me, the man who had spoken to me with such quiet understanding was my sister's fiancé.

　　I swallowed hard, my throat dry.

　　It didn't make sense.

　　How? How had I not known?

　　My mind reeled with the weight of the revelation, my stomach twisting uncomfortably.

　　Julian had looked at me as though he had been waiting for this moment, as though seeing me again had pleased him in some way. And yet, I stood frozen, helpless, unsure of what to say, what to feel.

　　A warm flush of embarrassment crept up my neck as memories from that night at the bar surfaced in my mind; his quiet confession, the way he had looked at me under the dim glow of the lanterns.

　　And now, he was standing beside my sister.