Chapter 17
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
Damien’s voice was hoarse as he apologized repeatedly. However, the person who truly needed to hear it was no longer by his side.
Tears blurred his vision. The image of the first time he met Celeste appeared in his mind’s
eye.
It had been an ordinary summer afternoon when a sudden sunshower broke out. She didn’t have an umbrella and wore a white dress. Upon being soaked by the rain, her dress clung tightly to her body and turned somewhat translucent.
She realized her wardrobe malfunction and tried helplessly to protect her dignity. However, the heavy raindrops fell nonstop, drenching her.
Damien had been driving past. He merely glanced at her, but his attention was drawn to her in an instant. His heart started pounding uncontrollably.
At that moment, he knew that he had fallen for her.
He stopped his car, opened the door, and asked her, “Do you want to get in and sort yourself out? It looks like you’re in a bit of a tough spot.”
Celeste lifted her head at the sound of his voice. The moment their eyes met, Damien’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest. His brain stopped working, and all he could hear was the sound of his heartbeat.
However, when Celeste saw him, she immediately became wary and rejected him without hesitation.
“I’m sorry. Thank
you for
your kindness, but that won’t be necessary.”
Damien didn’t want this chance to slip by. Seeing that she was about to leave, he ignored all reason and grabbed her hand. He brought her into the car and even took off his coat to drape over her shoulders.
“Don’t worry. I won’t get into the car. This rain probably won’t last long. Just wait it out and you’ll be fine.”
As he spoke, he foolishly stood outside the car, letting the rain soak him through. He didn’t recall having an umbrella.
Maybe it was because love had come abruptly, causing him to forget everything else or maybe he just wanted to spend more time with her.
Later, he shamelessly asked for her contact information, looked into her daily routines, and deliberately created countless coincidental encounters. He had also confessed his love to her countless times.
The day she finally accepted his love was the happiest day of his life.
Damien had never thought he could love someone like this. After all, he saw the precedent his parents had set.
His father was a monster incapable of love. He never turned any women away and would experience what love felt like through those women. It wasn’t until he met Damien’s mother, who became the exception.
He didn’t love her, but he wanted to have her. Without a care in the world, he took her home by force, making her bear his child even though she loved someone else.
Unable to accept that she had given birth to the child of the man who had ruined her life, and unable to escape, she took her life in front of Damien. As a little boy, he witnessed his mother’s death and his father’s cold–blooded madness. Thus, Damien always thought that he wouldn’t love anyone else, just like his father.
འཇ ཝཿན ཇ ཕོང ཝའོ བ རཾ བོ ཕེ
But now, he had truly become his parents‘ child. He loved someone with all his heart, like his mother, but he deeply hurt the person he loved, like his father.
Damien blamed himself and drank nonstop.
He had no idea how long he had been drinking, but the bottles around him were all empty, scattered messily across the floor.
He lay on the couch, drunk out of his mind, and curled up into an insecure ball.
Even though he had drunk so much that his stomach had begun to hurt, he didn’t bat an eye. He had no intention of getting up. Only the deathly pallor of his face showed how fragile he truly was at that moment.
Damien silently endured the pain as a punishment.
He felt apologetic. Celeste’s pain had to be a thousand times worse than this when she was tortured.
He slowly closed his eyes, feeling hopeless and wishing that he would just die.
Everything before his eyes went dark, and his consciousness gradually faded away. In his daze, he felt as though he had gone back in time.
He used to have a weak stomach and would occasionally have stomach aches. Although Celeste was not very good at cooking, she still learned how to make meals that were easy on the stomach and cooked them for him. She even made sure he ate on time.
That simple warmth from the past was now something he could never feel again.
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if he died.
