---- Chapter 19 The day of Ember and Gael's globally televised wedding was the worst day of Julian's life. He was strapped to his bed, his eyes forced open, the images of her happiness burning into his brain. He saw her walk down the aisle, a vision of strength and beauty. He saw the love in her eyes as she looked at Gael. He heard her soft, happy "I do." When Gael kissed her, a raw, guttural scream tore from Julian's throat, but no one was there to hear it. He was forced to watch their honeymoon, their charity galas, their quiet moments caught by paparazzi that Gael's own team had hired. He saw her pregnancy announcement, the radiant joy on her face. Each image was a fresh stab of an old wound, a new torture in his endless torment. He begged for death, but it would not come. Gael's nurse was under strict orders to keep him alive, to keep him watching. One day, the television showed the live broadcast of the birth announcement of their son. Gael, his face beaming with pride, stood by Ember's hospital bed. She was holding their child, her face a mask of pure, maternal love. ---- "We've named him Phoenix," she said to the reporters, her voice full of emotion. "Because he is a new life, risen from the ashes." In his dark room, Julian's mind finally, completely, shattered. The constant, relentless torture of watching the life he should have had, the family he should have had, was too much. He stared at the screen, at the image of Ember, Gael, and their son. His eyes, red-rimmed and full of a terrible, mad light, began to bleed. Tears of blood traced paths down his hollow cheeks. He saw Ember smile, a happy, contented smile he had never been able to give her. He let out one last, rattling breath, his eyes fixed on the screen, his heart finally giving out under the unbearable weight of his regret. His last thought was a desperate, hopeless plea to a universe that had long since stopped listening: If there is a next life... let me find you sooner. Let me love you right. But there would be no next life for Julian Copeland. Only the cold, silent darkness he had earned Thousands of miles away, Ember felt a sudden, inexplicable chill. Gael, sensing her unease, wrapped his arms around her and their newborn son. "What is it?" he asked softly. ---- She looked up at him, her beautiful, scarred face full of love. "Nothing," she said, leaning into his warmth. "Just a ghost from the past. It's gone now." And it was. She was safe. She was loved. She was finally, completely, free.