CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE TRUTH I NEVER MEANT FOR HER TO HEAR

Damon’s POV

The words left Liana’s mouth like they were dipped in poison. I felt them hit the air, felt them strike the space between us, felt them land on Aria like a blow. Her breath hitched behind me, small and shaken, and I swear I felt it against my spine even though we were not touching.

You did not tell her who she really is.

My pulse slammed so hard I tasted metal. The room tilted. Not physically, not in any way someone else would see, but inside my skull something lurched sideways.

Liana watched me with eyes that were too steady. Too sure. Too unafraid.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

She always had.

Even before she disappeared.

I stepped between her and Aria again, one slow move, deliberate, because my body remembered what it meant to protect before my head caught up. Liana’s gaze followed the motion with a soft hum, the sound of someone confirming a theory.

I did not look at Aria.

I could not.

Not yet.

Not with the way her breathing sounded like it might collapse in on itself.

My voice came out low, strained.

“Not one more word.”

Liana lifted her chin. “You do not get to silence me.”

“Watch me.”

Her eyes narrowed faintly and for a moment the Liana I remembered flickered behind the coldness on her face. The girl who used to argue with me until sunrise. The girl who refused to back down. But this version of her… she carried something sharper in her expression. Something that made the hair along my arms stand on end.

Aria shifted behind me.

I felt it.

The tremor.

The way she curled inward the way someone does when they feel the ground opening under their feet.

I finally forced myself to turn half toward her. Not fully. I was not ready to see the look on her face. But I needed to know she was still breathing.

Her eyes were wide, fixed on me in a way that made my chest tighten painfully. Not accusing. Not angry.

Just scared.

Of the situation.

Of the truth.

Of the idea that I might have kept something from her.

And maybe I had.

Not intentionally.

Not cruelly.

But silence can turn into lies when someone else chooses to fill the blank spaces.

Liana filled them now with frightening ease.

She stepped closer. “Go ahead, Damon. Tell her.”

“Do not.” The word came out as a growl. I barely recognized my own voice.

“Tell her why she has my face.”

Aria sucked in a small, broken breath. I felt the sound like a hand closing around my ribs. I turned sharply toward Liana.

“Stop.”

I meant it.

I meant it so deeply the word shook the air.

But Liana kept watching me, expression unreadable, almost studying the lines of my face like she was trying to trace old memories onto a stranger.

“Do you know what the funniest part is,” she said softly.

“Liana.”

“She trusts you.”

Aria’s hand loosened from the edge of the desk and I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Her breathing stuttered, and she looked away like she was afraid to hear what came next.

I felt something inside me fracture.

Liana continued speaking in a quiet voice meant for knives.

“She does not even realize she should be asking who she belongs to.”

My throat tightened. “Enough.”

“Ask him, Aria,” she said.

Her tone almost gentle.

Almost.

Aria’s voice came out small. “Damon.”

I closed my eyes.

That single word from her nearly undid me. I turned fully then, facing her, forcing myself to meet her eyes. Pain flickered across her expression, not because she knew anything yet, but because she sensed something was wrong. Something deep. Something old. Something rooted in years before she even knew my name.

“Aria,” I said quietly. “This is not the way you should hear any of this.”

Liana laughed under her breath. “That is what you are choosing to say.”

Aria swallowed, her hands twisting together. “What does she mean. What is she talking about.”

I stepped toward her. “We will talk away from her.”

Liana’s voice cut in, calm and cold. “She deserves to know the truth. Especially before it is too late.”

Aria flinched.

I felt anger surge through me so fast I saw white at the edges of my vision. “Liana, I swear to God, if you do not stop—”

“You are running out of time.”

“Stop.”

“Tell her,” Liana whispered, voice lowering to something dangerous.

“Or I will.”

Aria pressed a hand to her stomach as if trying to hold herself together. Her voice wavered when she spoke.

“Damon. Please. What truth.”

Her eyes were glassy. Her breathing too fast. She was unraveling right in front of me, not because she thought she had done something wrong, but because she was standing in the middle of a war she never asked to be part of.

I stepped closer and reached for her hand.

She did not pull away.

She only trembled.

I opened my mouth.

But I never got a chance to answer.

Because at that exact moment, Daniel’s voice slammed through the outer door again, louder, breathless, almost panicked.

“Sir. You need to come now. Security found her file. And you are not going to like what is in it.”

The entire room froze.

Aria’s fingers tightened around mine in instinctive fear.

Liana smiled.

Something cold slid down my spine.

Whatever was in that file…

whatever secret the building had kept…

whatever name or truth or lie was hiding under Aria’s identity…

I had a feeling it was about to bring everything crashing down.