Chapter 293 - 294 Let’s talk about us first

Chapter 293: Chapter 294 Let’s talk about us first

Damian’s POV

I sat in the dark. I didn’t bother with the lights.

The only glow in the room came from my phone screen—Aria’s missed call sitting there, taunting me every time the display woke up and dimmed again. I stared at it. I didn’t touch it.

Vanessa’s words were still crawling around under my skin,and I couldn’t shake them loose.

An hour ago, when I heard the knock, I thought it would be Aria. It wasn’t. It was Vanessa. The second I saw her standing in my doorway, I knew someone close to me had talked—had leaked the fight between me and Aria.

That night had been bad. One of my episodes—the kind only a handful of people were ever allowed to witness. My mother’s staff knew how to handle it. The private doctor knew. And the only person who knew I’d come here afterward was Rick, who’d driven me and the doctor both.

I didn’t have the patience to figure out which one of them had opened their mouth. Easier to just assume it wasn’t Rick, and quietly plan to replace everyone else.

"Aria’s not here," she said, reading the empty apartment like a verdict. "That should tell you something, Damian. I’m the only one who can handle all of you."

"Get out."

"Do you still have some fantasy about her?" Vanessa tilted her head, unbothered by the venom in my voice. "If you actually loved her, you wouldn’t be doing this to her. You know that better than anyone. If you insist on staying with her anyway, it’s not love. It’s just you wanting to own her—"

I didn’t let her finish. I had her out the door and it shut behind her before the sentence even landed all the way.

But it landed anyway. Right on the nerve she’d been aiming for.

Even if Aria chose to stay. If I already knew that being with me could hurt her—could get her killed, could get her cornered by people like whoever had come after me before—could I really keep pretending everything was fine, just because it was easier for me?

I didn’t have an answer.

You know the answer, my wolf growled, low, from somewhere underneath my own ribs. You’ve had it the whole time. You’re just too much of a coward to say it out loud.

Shut up.

Vanessa’s wrong about one thing—it isn’t that no one else can handle us. It’s that you won’t let anyone try.

I said shut up.

You’re sitting in the dark staring at her name on a screen instead of calling her back. Tell me again how that’s protecting her and not you.

I didn’t get the chance to argue with myself any further, because that was when the doorbell rang.

I ignored it.

It rang again. And again, faster now, more insistent, until it wasn’t a doorbell anymore—it was fists, pounding against the door hard enough to rattle the frame.

"Damian! Open the door! I know you’re in there—do you actually want a divorce or something?"

A woman’s voice, furious, cutting straight through the apartment.

I went rigid.

Aria.

She’d actually come.

I sat there for a long moment, frozen, unable to make myself move, until her voice came again—thinner this time, cracking at the edges.

"Damian, you don’t have to be this cruel. My hand’s bleeding and you still won’t open the door?"

There was a wobble in it. Something close to tears.

That got me moving before I’d even decided to move.

The door was open before I’d finished crossing the room, and Aria hadn’t even caught her breath before I had both her hands caught in mine.

"You’re hurt and you’re still pounding on doors like that? Don’t you feel it?"

My own voice came out rough, thick with something between panic and relief, as I turned her bandaged palm over carefully in my hands, checking for blood. There wasn’t any. I let out a breath.

Aria was staring at me. "If you knew it would hurt," she said quietly, "you could’ve just opened the door sooner."

Once I was sure she was really okay, I let go of her hands. I found myself avoiding her eyes, unable to look straight at her.

"I didn’t know it was you."

"You didn’t know it was me? Then who did you think it was?" A pause. "Vanessa?"

Her name out of Aria’s mouth hit something tight in my chest. "You saw her?"

"Mm. Looked like she’d just left."

"Aria, don’t misunderstand. Her being here has nothing to do with me. She showed up on her own—I don’t even know who told her—"

The words came out of me too fast, too urgent, some instinct in me scrambling the second Vanessa’s name was between us, desperate not to be misread.

Whatever else happened, I couldn’t stand the thought of her getting the wrong idea.

"Let’s not talk about you and Vanessa yet," Aria said. "Let’s talk about us first."