Chapter 25: Unspoken Words

It was champagne flutes and hushed tones of sophisticated conversation at the Hartley Gallery. Nathan Carter stood in all that black-tie elegance and fervor for art, motionless and alone, comparatively—an island unto himself within the swirling crowd. His eyes were dark with some emotion he could not quite name, fixed on some point across the room. Olivia. She stood beside one of her larger pieces, a canvas awash with stormy blues and violent reds, gesticulating passionately as she spoke to a small group of enraptured patrons. From where he stood, Nathan could still make out changes in her. The emerald green dress, which had once fit her so well, now hung loosely on her frame. Her cheekbones were more defined, lending her features a fragility that was not there before. It was her eyes, however, that most drew his attention. These burned with an inner fire, a juror's determination that seemed to contradict the physical changes in her appearance. As she spoke about her art, Olivia cam