His Unseen Love, Her Blind Regret

an who supposedly healed her broken heart after her first love, Cale, le

table. A man flung a bowl of steaming ho

, but towards Cale, shielding him with her own body. The scal

Jorja fussed over a tin

ncy room right now!" she cri

"I'm so sorry," she said. "You can

y art scholarship to Paris to be her live-in cure

p had been reinstated. That night, I didn't go back to he

pte

hem, a perfect semi-circle around a small mound of saffron risotto. He wiped a stray drop of butter fro

e soft clink of his shoes on the marble floor. Jorja was already at the table,

minated by the cool blue light of her

y, Jorja," Arv

not taking her e

eating until she was ready. He sat across from her, the ten-foot ma

, and for a fleeting second, Arvin saw the

a

he metal cold against his skin, then consciously relaxed his grip. He picked

usive sound in the quiet room. Jorja glanced up, a flicker

ck. The director of the orphanage where

out onto the veranda, the co

his voice warmer than i

laced with a familiar worry. "Are you a

fectly manicured garden. A single night-blooming jasmine

moment, the silence s

p," he finally sai

at's why I'

Goldie knew everything. She kn

said, her tone heavy with understanding. "I

rmed. "Jorja has b

and Arvin could picture her shaking her head. "You gave up that schol

me. His hands, which now knew the exact temperature for Jorja's morning coffe

o repay," he said, the

led the Kellerman Arts Foundation. The scholarship, Arvin... they're

, who was now taking a delicate bite of the scallop, her eyes still fixed on her phone. Five years. He had spent

tight with emotion. "Goldie, I w

nts," she promised. "You

on the vine seemed to shudder in the breeze, i

He was an orphan, a charity case, but one with talent. Elizebeth Rogers, Jorja's mother, had summoned him to her study. While other sponsored students

titude she deci

ined, "is heartbroken. Her childhood sweetheart, Cale On

had become a recluse. She had stopped eating, stopped see

im. I will pay you, support your art, anything. But I need you to pursue her, mar

arisian art school in his pocket, the dream of a lifetime. Then he had looked at the

r favorite flowers, her favorite music, her favorite foods. He became known in their soc

lled the "Sea God's Heart." Cale had once promised it to Jorja. When a rival bidder drove the price up, Arvin, without a thought, put his entire life sa

spered that night. "Let's try.

A post announcing his wife's pregnancy. Jorja's proposal hadn't been for

seafood pasta, even though she would often not show up for dinner, having flown to Europe on a whim because she heard Cale m

days and three nights, sponging her feverish brow, coaxing broth into h

spered one name

... C

ed. He had accepted then that his role was not to

ssed. The contract was

done. It was