The words spoken by the man were, on the surface, ostensibly ordinary, simple arrangements of syllables that one might hear in any casual conversation. Yet, each individual word seemed possessed of a unique, penetrating power, capable of bypassing all defenses to touch the very core of Julian Sterling's heart. In that fleeting, infinitesimal fraction of a second, Julian actually believed, truly believed, that his heart had wavered, that the fortress he had built around his emotions had developed a fatal crack.
