Masuk"What?" "I said get out. Both of you. Get out of my life. I don't want your advice anymore. I don't want your opinions. I don't want anything to do with you." "Damon, you're being dramatic..." "I'm being honest. You helped destroy my marriage and you're standing here acting like it was for the best. Like Eve leaving is just some natural consequence instead of the direct result of your manipulation and my stupidity. So I'm done. I'm done listening to you, done taking your advice, done letting you have any say in my life." Richard's voice was steel. "You're upset. When you've calmed down, you'll realize you're overreacting." "I'm not overreacting. I'm finally seeing clearly. You've been controlling my life for years. Telling me what to do, who to marry, how to run my business. And I let you because it was easier than fighting. But I'm done. Starting now." "Damon..." "I mean it. Don't call me. Don't come to my apartment. Don't contact me at work. We're done." I walked out of the
DAMON I went straight to my parents' house after Eve refused to see me.I didn't even call ahead or think about what I was going to say. I just drove to their Upper East Side townhouse with my hands shaking on the steering wheel and rage building in my chest. My mother answered the door looking surprised. "Damon? What are you doing here? I thought you had meetings today..." "Where's Dad?" "In his study. What's wrong? You look terrible." I pushed past her into the house, walked straight to my father's study and threw the door open. Richard looked up from his desk, annoyed at the interruption. "Damon. I'm on a call..." "Hang up." "Excuse me?" "I said hang up the phone. We need to talk....Now." Something in my voice made him actually do it, he ended the call and set his phone down carefully. "What's going on?" My mother appeared in the doorway behind me. "Damon, what happened?" I turned to look at both of them. These people who'd raised me. Who'd guided me, who'd pushed m
EVE'S POV Four days left. Four days until I left New York forever. Four days until I disappeared into a new life in London where no one knew my story or my secrets. I was plenty weeks pregnant now. The bump impossible to hide in anything remotely fitted. I'd stopped going out unless absolutely necessary. Groceries delivered. Errands done online. The world narrowed to my small apartment and the boxes stacked against every wall. Jessica came over Monday morning to help with the last of the packing. "You're really doing this," she said, looking around at the nearly empty space. "In four days you'll be gone." "In four days I'll be free." "Free or running?" I taped up another box. "Does it matter?" "I think it does. Running means you're still letting them control your life. Free means you've actually moved on." "Then I'm running. And I'll figure out how to be free once I'm far enough away that I can breathe again." Jessica sat down on the couch...one of the few pieces of
She froze mid-step. "What?" "The security footage from the day you fell. I watched it." The color drained from her face. "Damon..." "You threw yourself down those stairs. You weren't pushed. Eve never touched you. You did it to yourself." "That's not what happened..." "I watched it, Sophia. Multiple times. I saw exactly what happened. You threw yourself backward deliberately. You staged the whole thing." She stood there, mouth opening and closing, no words coming out. "Why?" I asked. "Why would you do that to yourself? Why would you risk getting that badly hurt just to frame Eve?" "I didn't...the footage must be wrong..." "The footage is crystal clear. Stop lying." "I'm not lying..." "You threw yourself down the stairs!" My voice was rising now, all the anger and betrayal finally breaking through. "You broke your own bones, gave yourself a concussion, lost a baby...if there even was a baby...just to make me think Eve assaulted you!" Sophia's face crumpled. But I couldn'
DAMON'S POV I couldn't sleep, Sophia's words kept echoing in my head. When I threw myself down a flight of stairs and lost everything I thought I wanted. Threw myself. She didn't say fell, she didn't say pushed, she said threw myself. It had to be a slip of the tongue. A mistake in phrasing. People misspoke all the time. But something about the way she'd said it, the way she'd rushed out of the room immediately after, the way her face had gone pale when the words left her mouth. It felt significant, like a crack in a carefully maintained facade. I lay in bed staring at the ceiling until two AM. Then I got up. Grabbed my phone from the nightstand, went to my study and closed the door. I sat down at my desk in the darkness and opened the security app and found the footage from that Sunday. The footage I'd been avoiding for weeks. The footage Marcus had begged me to watch. The footage Sophia had suddenly encouraged me to watch tonight. My finger hovered over the play butto
SOPHIA'S POV I'd been looking at apartments for three days. Scrolling through listings, scheduling viewings, pretending I was actually going to move out. But I wasn't. Not really. This was just another performance. Another way to make Damon feel guilty, make him ask me to stay, make him realize he needed me here. It had worked before. The injury, the lost baby, the vulnerability...all of it had kept him close, kept him feeling responsible, kept him choosing me. The apartment hunt was just the next act. I was in the living room Thursday afternoon when Damon came home from work early. "You're back," I said, looking up from my laptop. "Had a short day. How's the apartment search going?" "Good. I have three viewings scheduled for tomorrow." He sat down across from me, loosened his tie. "You don't have to rush this. You can stay here as long as you need." There it was. The guilt. The concern. Exactly what I'd been angling for. "I know. But I think it's better if I find my
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: THE TIMELINEDamon called Marcus at seven the next morning.I was awake, had been awake all night, staring at the ceiling while Damon pretended to sleep next to me."I need to ask you about something," Damon said into the phone, his voice rough from not sleeping. "That gallery
The two weeks flew by faster than Eve expected.Jessica took her dress shopping even though the dress was already made. Said they needed the experience, the tradition of it. They tried on ridiculous gowns they'd never buy and drank champagne and laughed until Eve's sides hurt."This is what it shou
Three days of texts from Sophia. Three days of her playing the scared pregnant woman who just wanted to talk, who just wanted Damon to acknowledge what was happening.Finally Damon cracked."We need to confront her," he said. "Get this out in the open, demand the paternity test and end this.""She'
Day three and I was getting used to thiswaking up slow, no alarms, no rushing, just existing Damon was already awake, I could hear him outside on the deckI found him with coffee, looking at the ocean, not his phone, not his laptop, just the ocean“Morning,” I said“Morning.” He handed me a cup. “







