The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance

Her brow twitched slightly as she turned her head and found herself staring into a pair of deep, jet-black eyes.

Stella froze for a moment, suddenly remembering that Joshua was still there.

"Is something wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Joshua's long lashes lowered, concealing whatever emotion flickered in his gaze. "No, it's nothing. I just wanted to ask-do you still have Nocturne Stella with you?" These past few days, Stella hadn't been practicing with Nocturne Stella. Joshua hadn't seen her take out her favorite violin for quite some time.

"It's with my mentor for now," she replied. "He's borrowing it for a performance."

In truth, Nocturne Stella was at Antoney's, but she hadn't actually lent it out for any concert. Even now, Stella couldn't fully trust Joshua. She worried he might be faking his memory loss, deliberately getting close to her.

She'd been through the whole Sherman Burton incident once. She wasn't naïve enough to trust someone with an unclear past so easily. Even though she doubted there was much about her worth scheming over anymore, what if he was after Nocturne Stella, intending to harm it?noveldrama

Stella resolved to use Nocturne Stella as little as possible until the concert began.

Joshua gave a small, disappointed sigh. "Looks like I won't get to experience Nocturne Stella's magic for a while."

Stella picked up the violin resting beside her. "Nocturne Stella was my mother's- she left it to me. But this violin here is the one I've played since I was a child."

Before returning to the Williams family, Stella's mother had given her this very violin. Every violinist owned more than one instrument. It was true for Stella, and for her mother as well.

Joshua looked at the violin in her hands. "Does this one have a name?"

"It does," Stella answered. "It's called Nameless."

Joshua blinked. "Nameless? You mean it doesn't have a real name?"

Stella smiled. "Of course it does. Its name is literally Nameless."

He stared for a moment, then couldn't help laughing. "How did you come up with

that? I thought girls liked to give their things pretty names."

"When I first got this violin," Stella said, "I spent days thinking of the perfect name. None of them seemed good enough for it. I obsessed over it for three whole days so much that I couldn't even focus on practicing. My mother ended up scolding me pretty harshly. After that, to keep myself from getting distracted, I just called it Nameless."

She paused, glancing down at the violin like a mother looks at her child. Her eyes softened with affection.

"My mentor tried to comfort me," she continued, "said that a good name means it can become my 'nameless hero' one day."

Talking about music, Stella found herself unusually chatty. She looked at Joshua. "The opening piece for my concert is Moonlight. I'll save you a ticket, if you'd like to hear Nocturne Stella in person."

Joshua hesitated, then smiled. "I'd like that."

By then, Rachel's recital would probably be coming up, too. His gaze lingered on the violin in Stella's hands.

"Well, since Nocturne Stella is unavailable, Ms. Cameron, would you mind playing Moonlight on this one?"

Moonlight was one of Stella's earliest compositions, a piece she'd performed more than any other. She could play it with her eyes closed; she hadn't needed to practice it at all lately.

Seeing Joshua's genuine interest, she nodded. "Of course."

She raised the instrument and played Moonlight with practiced ease. Joshua listened quietly, lost in the music. It sounded just as it had at Mr. Burton's dinner party, when she'd played with Nameless as well.

When the piece ended, Joshua suddenly asked, "Ms. Cameron, have you ever

been to Solmaris?"