LOGINThe man on the other end of the call took a breath, then spoke again.“Miss, the hospital is St. Vincent Medical Centre. She was brought here about twenty minutes ago after the accident. We tried contacting her emergency contact, but your number was the only one we could find from her belongings.”Katie’s heart seemed to stop. “St. Vincent?” she repeated, barely hearing her own voice.“Yes, ma’am.”“Is she conscious?”There was a silence. That silence terrified her more than anything he could have said.“Sir?” Katie pressed, her voice breaking. “Is my grandmother conscious?”“I’m sorry, miss. You need to come to the hospital.”Katie stood so quickly that her knees nearly gave way. Damien immediately caught her by the arm.“Katie.”“My grandmother,” she whispered.“What happened?”“She’s at St. Vincent.”Damien’s expression changed. “Is she okay?”Katie shook her head because she didn’t know how to answer him. “The man said there was an accident.”Damien didn’t ask another question. He
Katie stared at Damien.“Harry,” she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. “He was the man who was caught on camera that day.”Damien’s brows drew together. “What day?”“The day everything started.” Katie swallowed, forcing herself to gather her thoughts. “The day I was stranded on the road before the rumors about me started spreading. He was the one people saw helping me. Someone recorded it, and the video went around before the rumors began.”Damien’s expression darkened.Katie looked down at the phone in his hand. “After that, he told me he had been sacked from his job because of everything that happened. I felt bad for him, so I took him in and gave him a job at my office.”Damien said nothing. The realization seemed to settle between them with a weight neither of them could ignore.“He made you feel sorry for him,” Damien said quietly.Katie nodded. “And I thought I was helping him.”Damien looked back at Brian’s message, his eyes narrowing as he reread the part about Harry
By the time Damien and Katie reached the Stark estate, the sky had already begun to darken.The drive home had been quiet, not because there was anything uncomfortable between them anymore, but because both of them were thinking about Brian’s message.I’ll tell you everything now.Those words had changed the mood inside the car completely.Katie couldn’t stop wondering what Brian had been hiding, while Damien was clearly thinking through every possibility of what could have happened after the pool incident.As soon as the car stopped in front of the house, Damien turned off the engine. Neither of them moved immediately.Katie stared at her phone. There was still no new message. Damien reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. “Whatever he tells us, we’ll deal with it together.Katie looked at him. A small smile appeared on her face. “You’re getting used to saying that.”“I like the sound of it.”Katie shook her head, but her smile remained. They stepped out of the car and walked i
Damien stared at her for a while. Then, slowly, a smile appeared on his face.It was not the confident smile Katie was used to seeing whenever he had already decided what he wanted, but something softer, almost relieved, as if he had been waiting for those exact words for longer than she realized.“Finally,” he said quietly.Katie frowned. “Finally what?”“You actually want to listen to me.”A faint blush immediately touched her cheeks. “I asked you a question.”“And I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that question.” Damien’s smile widened slightly before he shifted the car into park and turned his body toward her. “Yes, Katie.”Her heart skipped. “Yes, it was true.”She stared at him. “I meant everything I said last night. I didn’t say those things because I was drunk, and I didn’t say them because I wanted you to feel sorry for me.” His expression became serious. “I love you.”Katie’s breath caught.Damien continued before she could interrupt. “I don’t know exactly when it happen
Damien had been waiting in the car for nearly twenty minutes.He had parked a short distance from Sweetner Cafe, far enough from the entrance that Katie wouldn’t immediately notice him, but close enough that he could see anyone leaving.He had told himself he wasn’t going to interfere.Katie had asked Brian to meet her, and Damien knew she needed answers about what had happened at the pool. He had no right to question her every movement, especially after spending the past two weeks making her feel as though she had no place in his life.Still, waiting was becoming unbearable. His fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he stared through the windshield.Then the cafe door opened. Damien immediately straightened.Katie stepped outside and his relief lasted only a second.Brian was beside her.Damien’s jaw tightened when he saw Brian’s hand near Katie’s arm, supporting her slightly as she walked down the small steps leading from the entrance.He watched them carefully.Katie looked
Katie was already waiting when Brian arrived. She had chosen a table near the far side of Sweetner Cafe, away from the windows and the busier section of the restaurant. She wanted privacy, especially after everything that had happened, and she had spent the last ten minutes staring at the entrance while absentmindedly turning her phone over in her hand.Damien’s drunken confession still lingered in her mind, along with the way he had fallen asleep against her shoulder after spending so much time begging her to listen to him. She had tried to convince herself that his words meant nothing because he had been drinking, but some part of her still remembered the desperation in his voice when he told her he didn’t want her to leave.She pushed those thoughts away. Today wasn’t about Damien. It was about Brian.The doors of the cafe opened, and Brian walked inside. The moment he spotted her, his entire expression changed.A bright smile immediately spread across his face, so different from







