Chapter 78

• The weeks following the dinner felt long and drawn out, each day slipping quietly into the next like a fading echo of laughter. Charlotte found herself numbly going through the motions of her life, every fiber of her being aware that something had shifted within her. Despite her attempts to focus on her work as a jewelry designer and her responsibilities as a mother, the weight of unresolved feelings hung over her like a shadow.
• After the dinner with Esther and Damien, a feeling of unease had settled in her chest, gnawing at her every time she stepped into her studio or her home. Esther’s smirk during dinner—the way she had nudged at old memories with a predatory gleam in her eyes—had left Charlotte throat-deep in uncertainty, as if she were stuck in a dream from which she couldn’t awaken. Esther’s insistence on calling Charlotte’s artistic talent into question had felt oddly sharp, her tones climbed through praise into tacit judgment, making Charlotte painfully aware of her past with Damien and her current estrangement from him.
• Now, as she sat at her workbench in the studio, the sun filtering through the window, she tried to concentrate on the sparkling gemstones before her. Creating intricate pieces had always been a refuge, a place where she could immerse herself and forget the complex web surrounding her life. But today, her thoughts wandered back to the dinner and the way Damien had looked at her so intently, filled with unresolved longing that had mirrored her own.