Despite Damien threatening to blow himself up, neither Theo nor Harrison allowed Aurelia to go near him.
Damien had literally strapped explosives to his chest–there was no doubt he was mentally unstable. What if he suddenly lost it and tried to take Aurelia with him
in a
It was simply too dangerous.
idea of dying together?
“But if he
sets it off here, from this distance, I won’t survive either,” Aurelia said calmly. “And everyone else would be caught in the blast too.
“Dad, Theo, please let me go. Damien may have done a lot of terrible things, but he’s always been a man of his word. He said if I went with him, he wouldn’t set off the bomb. I believe him.”
Aurelia’s voice was resolute. In the end, they had no choice but to relent–though not without conditions. Damien and Aurelia had to stay within view at all times, and they weren’t allowed to wander off.
“Fine,” Damien agreed without hesitation.
He led Aurelia up to the rooftop of the hotel. The wind howled around them, cold and sharp.
Damien stood at the very edge, the skyline stretching out behind him like a silent witness. His face was pale, his eyes sunken. He looked broken and haunted. He stared at Aurelia for a long time before tears silently began to stream down his cheeks.
“Aury,” he whispered. “I wish I’d met you sooner.”
Aurelia said nothing. She simply turned her face away and looked out into the distance.
“I loved you,” Damien said, his voice cracking as the tears fell harder. “You were like sunlight breaking into the darkest corners of my life. But I couldn’t bring myself to betray Sloane.
“She was there first, and I told myself that meant I owed her everything. No matter how good you were, I convinced myself loyalty meant putting her before anyone else–before you and before myself. I thought that was love–putting her above everything and making her my whole world.”
He let out a ragged laugh. “And it turns out… she was lying to me the entire time. God, I was such a fool. I was the biggest idiot in the world.”
Aurelia finally sighed. “Damien, it’s too late. Whatever you say now doesn’t matter anymore. I did love you once… but that love was worn down by your betrayal, your coldness, and the way you chose someone else over and over again.
2=
“I don’t feel anything for you anymore. I just want us to part ways peacefully. Let’s at least leave each other with a little dignity.”
Damien’s smile was heartbreakingly soft. He nodded slowly, his voice low and hoarse.
“Don’t worry, Aury. I won’t bother you anymore. I just wanted to talk to you one last time before I go.
“I’m not like the others. They all had parents at some point. I never did. I never saw my mother, and I never knew my father. I grew up without anyone. I had no family and no real friends. Sloane was all I had.
“But then you came into my life. You took me honie. You didn’t know it, but I started thinking of you and Harrison as the family I never had. If Sloane hadn’t been in the way… maybe things could’ve been different between us.”
He turned his head slightly. “Have you ever heard of the multiverse theory? Maybe in another universe, there’s a version of us without Sloane in the middle- where you’re my only salvation, and I give you the kind of love that makes me your whole world. In another life, maybe that ending is ours.”
But in this life, that ending was just a fantasy,
He suddenly asked, desperate, like he needed to hear it to finally let go, “Aury, you did love me once, right?”
Aurelia hesitated. But eventually, she nodded. “I once thought you were my whole world.”
Damien finally smiled.
It wasn’t empty, deranged, or desperate. It was peaceful. Fulfilled.
1
“Being loved by you… That was the greatest honor of my life,” he said gently. “It’s just a shame I realized it too late. I missed my chance. If there’s another life, I hope I get to love you the right way.”
Then, without warning, Damien stepped forward, wrapped his arms around Aurelia, and kissed her, holding the back of her head as he pulled her close.
