Novels by Aceso_

Chapter 17: Aurora's POVA year passed before either of us said the word out loud, not because we were avoiding it, but because some things don't need rushing when you've already survived the worst version of losing each other.it was josie who brought it up first, actually, muttering something about "wedding season" while dusting a shelf that didn't need dusting, and damian nearly choked on his coffee across the kitchen island. i laughed so hard i had to sit down."she's not wrong," he said later, once josie had made her exit with entirely too much satisfaction on her face."about what?""about wanting you to stay. permanently. legally. with a ring involved, if you'd let me."i looked at him for a long moment, this man who'd once stood at the end of a hallway telling me curiosity kills, who'd carried five years of my grief and his own guilt without ever once putting either of them down."ask me properly," i said, "and find out."he did, weeks later, not with some elaborate gala or a

Chapter 16: Aurora's POVThe onlookers said the fire took almost two hours to fully die down, i don't remember much of the ride to the hospital, just damian's hand wrapped so tight around mine i could feel his pulse instead of my own, and the paramedics saying words like smoke inhalation and shock, cause of death. My father didn't make it to the hospital.They told me later, gently, the way people tell you things they've said too many times before, that his heart just gave out when they were in the ambulance, that there was nothing anyone could have done, that i shouldn't blame myself.i did anyway, for a while.But underneath the grief there was something i didn't expect to feel, I felt a wave of relief, because for the first time in five years i wasn't grieving a lie. My father was a grieving man, glad i'd actually gotten to say goodbye to him, another thing i was grateful for was the way he looked me in the eye and told me the truth before he died, even if the truth had taken long

Chapter 15: Aurora's POVI didn't go far, i lodged in a hotel a few blocks from Volkov Corp, cheap enough that no one would think to look for me there, ironic considering I wasn't even sure which name belonged to me anymore.As I sat on that stiff-assed on the hotel bed for hours, the thoughts in my head kept driving me more and more crazy , and I must have read that signed document forty times, because my father's handwriting kept swimming in and out of focus until i could not make meaning of the letters on the pamphlet i was holding.He might still be alive.I couldn't sleep, i kept drifting in and out, i was too anxious to rest, around three in the morning my burner phone buzzed against the nightstand, and my whole body went cold before I even looked at the screen.i was relieved because it wasn't Elias.the call was from Simone."You need to come see me," he said, without greeting. "Now, Aurora. It's about your father."My hands were shaking again by the time I got to the add

*Chapter 14: Aurora's POV*Hospitals have a smell you never really forget, all bleach and fear, with an uneasy cascade of calm hovering in the atmosphere,no one knew the others fate, as I sat in that waiting room for six hours with Damian's blood still faintly staining the creases of my knuckles no matter how many times I scrubbed at them in the bathroom sink, i felt my heart beat a thousand times.Vivian showed up somewhere around hour three, mascara smudged, looking more human than I'd ever seen her, and she sat beside me without a word and just held my hand until a doctor finally came through those double doors."He's stable," the doctor said, and I felt my whole body cave in on itself with relief, "the bullet missed the vital parts, he's lucky, he'll need weeks to recover but he's going to be fine eventually."I didn't cry until I was alone in his room that night, sitting in the chair beside his bed, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest like it was the only proof I had t

**Chapter 13: Aurora's POV**I woke up before he did, which almost never happened, and for a while I just lay there watching the light change over his shoulder, trying to figure out how I'd ended up here, tangled in a man I'd sworn to destroy, feeling something that scared me a lot more than hate ever did.He stirred eventually, pulling me closer without even opening his eyes, like it was instinct now, like my body had become something familiar to him instead of a stranger's."You're thinking too loud," he mumbled into my hair."I didn't say anything.""with me, you don't have to, it's almost like i know you like the back of my palm."I almost smiled, almost let myself have this, whatever *this* was, but then my phone buzzed on the nightstand and every soft thing in me went cold at once.E: Enjoyed last night? be rest assured it won't last.I sat up fast, and Damian felt it, felt the shift in me before he even saw the screen."What is it."I handed him the phone without a word, watchi

**Chapter 12: Aurora's POV**The penthouse was dark when I got back, except for the low gold light spilling out from under the study door.Of course he was still up, perhaps he had a lot on his mind too, just like I did.I stood outside that door for longer than I want to admit, rehearsing the question in my head like it was anything else I could get right, like there was a version of *what am I to you* that wouldn't blow everything apart the second I said it out loud.There wasn't, I knew that. I walked in anyway.Damian looked up from his desk, and whatever he saw on my face made him set his pen down slowly, carefully, the way you'd put down something breakable."You went to see him."He was always direct with his words,he told me things about myself like he already knew the answer and was just waiting to see if I'd lie about it."How do you always know?""Because I know you." He leaned back in his chair, and for once he didn't look composed, didn't look like the man who ran a boardr