CHAPTER 3 - I Follow the Truth

The moment Damon carries Sera out of the hall, I move after them.

I don’t think so.

I just follow.

My heels click, my heart pounds, and my breath comes in short bursts. I don’t care if anyone sees me chase after them. Something inside me feels ripped open, and I need answers. I need the truth. I need something real, because everything else tonight feels like a lie.

The hallway turns quiet as they disappear around a bend. I pick up my speed, almost running.

Why did the mark glow for both of us?

Why did Damon look terrified?

What did he mean about the child waking early?

None of it makes sense.

I stop at the door of his private office, the one no guest dares to touch. It’s slightly open.

I hear voices.

Sera’s voice breaks first.

“It hurtsDamon, it hurts if something is wrong.”

Her breath is sharp, scared.

Damon’s lower voice answers. “I’ve got you. I’m here. Just breathe. I’m not letting anything happen to you.”

My chest contracts with something painfulshame, anger, uncertainty, all twisted together. I press closer to the door.

Sera’s voice trembles. “You should not be here with me right now. She saw everything.”

“I know,” Damon whispers. “I know, Sera.”

His voice cracks on her name.

“But I can’t lose you again.”

Again.

The word stabs me.

Again suggests history. Depth. Something more than a mistake.

My heart sinks. Did this begin earlier than I thought? How long have they been meeting like this? How long have I been walking around my marriage blind?

Sera lets out a shaky sigh. “I told you it was dangerous to keep it from her. The bond… It gets stronger every day. She saw the mark. She saw the glow.”

“She wasn’t supposed to,” Damon says. “I thought I could protect her.”

Protect me? By lying?

Sera’s tone sharpens. “Protect her? Damon, she is your wife. But I am your mate. You should never have forced yourself away from me. It hurt both of us.”

I swallow hard.

Forced himself?

Damon’s voice softens. “I tried to deny it. The first moment I saw you… everything changed. Everything pulled. Everything shifted.” He takes a breath. “But I was married. I thought I could fight fate.”

My stomach twists.

The floor feels like it’s moving.

He felt it the first moment he saw her.

Before any affair started.

Before he ever admitted anything.

Before I even suspected.

Sera lowers her voice. “The bond chose me. And I know that hurt her. But you could have told her. She deserved the truth.”

Damon’s speech is raw. “You think I didn’t know that? I couldn’t tell her. She loved me too much. She believed in us. And if she saw how my mark reacted to you”

Sera interrupts, whispering furiously. “She saw it tonight. Damon, it’s happening faster now. My own mark is getting bigger. Look.”

He exhales quickly.

I picture him looking at the mark on her skin, the one that glowed brighter than anything I’ve seen.

Sera continues, “The pregnancy accelerates the link. That’s why the pain started.”

Damon swears under his breath. “I should have protected you better.”

“You tried,” she says softly. “But fate does not wait for anyone.”

I lean closer, my heart beating so hard I can hardly breathe. My fingers shake as I grip the doorframe.

Sera says, “We need to tell her everything before it gets worse.”

Damon hesitates. “She’s not ready.”

“She saw the glow,” Sera claims. “She knows something is happening.”

No.

Not something.

Everything.

My hand slips slightly against the door, and it creaks.

I freeze.

Inside, both sounds stop.

Silence.

Then Damon speaks, low and sharp. “Someone’s there.”

My heart leaps into my throat.

Sera says, “Is it her?”

I step back, my breath stuck, my body shaking.

Damon’s footsteps approach the door.

I take another step back.

My beat feels like a drum inside my brain.

Then I hear his voice through the small hole.

“Aria.”

My name.

Low.

Unsteady.

Dangerous.

My breath catches.

I cannot run.

I cannot hide.

I cannot say I didn’t hear them.

I stand there, frozen, when the door starts to open wider.

“Aria,” Damon says again.

His tone has changed.

It’s not cold.

It’s not away.

It’s something else. Something broken.

I lift my eyes.

He stands there, tall and tense, stress written across his face even though he tries to hide it.

Behind him, Sera sits on the edge of the desk, holding her lower stomach. Her mark fades slowly, pulsing with weak light.

Her eyes meet mine.

And something inside me breaks.

“Why did you follow us?”

Damon asks.

His speech is calm on the surface, but I hear the stiffness beneath.

I swallow, forcing calm words. “Because you left me in the middle of the room with nothing but whispers and humiliation. And because I deserve answers.”

His jaw tenses. “You weren’t supposed to hear what you heard.”

Sera exhales softly. “But she did. Damon, you cannot keep hiding the truth from her.”

“I wasn’t shielding,” he says. “I was trying to protect her.”

Protect me.

Again that word.

I meet his eyes. “Protect me from what? My own marriage? My own life?”

Damon swears quietly. “Aria”

“No,” I cut in. “I want to hear it. All of it. From the start.”

He hesitates.

Sera’s voice breaks the quiet. “I’m pregnant.”

“I know,” I say, shocking myself at how steady my voice sounds. “I heard you.”

Sera nods slowly, her eyes gentle in a way that only infuriates me more.

Damon lifts a hand as if he wants to reach for me, but he stops halfway.

His voice drops. “Aria… it happened before I could stop it.”

I laughsoft, sharp, and painful. “Stop it? Damon, you had an affair. You made a choice. You touched her. You kept seeing her. That wasn’t fate. That was you.”

His shoulders tense. “I told you it wasn’t like that.”

“Well, explain it to me,” I say. “Because from where I stand, it looks exactly like betrayal.”

The room gets quiet.