Chapter 241

[ 1,025 words ]

Emilia’s POV

The entire performance was exhilarating. When the concert finally came to an end, the crowd was reluctant to leave. After Damien’s deep bow to the audience, the performance was officially over.

I stayed in my seat and didn’t move. The people around me filed out one by one, their chatter fading to echoes. Once almost everyone was gone, I finally stood and headed for the exit. A couple hundred feet from the doors, I spotted Abigail near the stage entrance, clearly waiting for Damien to come out.

When I walked up, she looked a little surprised to see me, but she made no move to avoid me.

“Emilia. What a coincidence.” Her smile was polite, measured.

“Yes. What a coincidence.” I stopped a few feet from her. “Waiting for Damien?”

She didn’t deny it. She just nodded. “Yes.”

“What’s he to you?”

“We’re just friends.”

A dry laugh slipped out of me. “I don’t know what he is to you, but even a fool can see Damien loves you.” I tilted my head and studied her. “I’ve always wondered how much a man has to love a woman to wear the name of a traitor for her.”

Her face darkened. “We’re just good friends.”

“Ah. So it’s one-sided.” I let that sit a beat. “Do you know he got into a fight today because of you?”

“A fight?” Her eyebrows shot up. She clearly hadn’t known.

“Yes. With Sebastian.”

“Why?”

Real surprise flickered across her face.

“Why? What else would it be?” I folded my arms. “He said you were forced to leave Sebastian, and that your family was destroyed because of the Simons. So tell me. What’s going on?”

The color drained from her face. “Sorry,” she said coldly. “I don’t feel like talking about it right now. And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

Flat. Ruthless. I pulled in a slow breath and reined it in. “Fine. You don’t have to talk. Just one piece of advice. Hold on to the person who’s always beside you. Not everyone will follow you around without a single complaint or regret the way Damien does. Even Sebastian might not manage that.”

Then I turned and stepped out onto the wet pavement, ready to leave it there.

“Give him back to me.”

Abigail’s cold voice cut through the night behind me. I stopped mid-step. For a second I thought I’d heard her wrong. I turned back, slow. “Sorry. What did you say?”

“I said give Sebastian back to me.”

For a moment all I could do was stare at her. Then something hot and sharp flared in my chest. “Why?”

“Because of everything we’ve been through. Because we still love each other.”

“You still love each other.” A harsh laugh scraped out of me. “Did you dream that up yourself, or did Sebastian actually say it?”

“He doesn’t need to say it.” Abigail lifted her chin, her eyes blazing. “I can see straight into his heart.”

“Wow. You really are full of yourself.” A sneer twisted my mouth before I could stop it. “Whether Sebastian still loves you or not, I can’t hand him back. I’m the one who pulled him out of the dark when he had nothing left.”

“I had a reason for leaving him.”

“I don’t care what the reason was. You don’t get to say this to me now. Really loving someone isn’t running when it gets hard. It’s facing it together. The day you let this go three years ago, you lost any right to be taken back.”

Abigail raised her head, tears catching the dim light. “I will get Sebastian back. And I’ll show you exactly who the conceited one really is.”

“Bring it on.” I lifted my chin and held her stare. “There’s nothing in this life I’m afraid of.”

Then I turned and walked off, anger thrumming through me with every step on the wet pavement.

Author’s POV

Not long after Emilia left, Damien rushed out of the performance hall, his gaze cutting straight to Abigail in the thinning crowd. A grin spread across his face as he waved. “Abigail! Have you been waiting long?”

Before she could answer, he unwound the beige scarf from his neck and looped it around hers. Then he caught her hands and rubbed them between his palms, brisk and fussy. “Warm up. Come on. Warm up.”

The repetition, almost a nervous chant, broke through Abigail’s troubled expression. A genuine laugh slipped out. “Damien, thank you.”

It was more than she usually let herself say. Over the past three years, he’d been her anchor. Without him, she wasn’t sure she’d have survived the wreckage of her old life. She knew she’d been selfish, never returning his feelings, never giving him what he wanted. He’d stayed anyway.

Damien’s smile faded as he looked closer. “Why were you crying just now?” His tone shifted, protective and sharp. “Which bastard made you cry?”

Abigail drew a shaky breath, her fingers tightening in the borrowed scarf. “Your cousin’s wife. Emilia Taylor.”

At the name, Damien went still. His hands dropped from hers like they’d been burned. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, almost pained. “Do you really have to take away the happiness that belongs to her?”

“It should have been mine.” Abigail’s voice rose, fierce and unyielding.

“But you have to admit Sebastian loves her now.”

“Who knows him better, her or me?” Abigail shot back, eyes blazing. “She showed up when he was at his lowest. Of course he caught feelings. That doesn’t make them real.”

Damien’s jaw tightened. “What about me?” The question came out raw. “I’ve been beside you this whole time. Have you ever felt anything for me? Even a little?”

Abigail opened her mouth, then closed it. The silence stretched, heavy and damning. It wasn’t that she had no answer. They both knew what it was.

The disappointment in Damien’s eyes was impossible to miss. He looked away first, reaching for her hand again with a sigh that seemed to come from somewhere bone-deep and tired. “Let’s go,” he muttered, flat. “Just pretend I never asked.”

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