Three years passed in the blink of an eye.

September. Autumn leaves turned gold.

At a banquet, Julian and Francesca ran into each other without warning.

He hadn’t known she’d come back. In the few messages they’d exchanged, she’d barely ever mentioned where she was. All Julian knew was that during her three years in France, aside from taking care of Serena, she’d been studying painting.

Inside the ballroom, the lights were ...