Ariah should have been positively ecstatic at the revelation. Instead, she felt as though her heart and future had been torn asunder.Streams of guilt coiled around her gut and blackened her insides. The complexity of her emotions jarred her. She was beyond happy to see Jacques alive and well, of course – yet a sense of doom fogged her thoughts and caused her heart to ache. A little more than a month ago, she would have crumpled into a heap of tears at the very sight of him. He’d once represented everything she’d come to value most: dependability, security, and ritual.But everything had changed since that time. And this reunion could only lead to an inevitable goodbye.Ariah paced the drawing room as her heart banged against her ribs. Despair closed around her heart like a steel fist. She felt entombed – unable to breathe and with nowhere to turn.Jacques reclined in the rocking chair, a walking stick positioned across his lap. When she’d seen him minutes before, the first thing she’d noticed was his severe limp.
