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CHAPTER 63 — The Real Proposal

Author: Debbie
last update publish date: 2026-04-24 21:45:42

The kitchen smelled like vanilla, citrus zest, and something faintly burned.

Arielle stood barefoot on the cool marble floor, sleeves of Damian’s old shirt rolled up to her elbows, hair twisted into a messy knot that kept unraveling no matter how many times she pinned it back. There was flour on the counter, flour on the floor, and a faint dusting of it on her cheek that she kept forgetting to wipe away.

She was baking because she needed to feel normal.

Because after boardrooms and cameras a
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  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    AUTHOR'S NOTE

    If you've made it to the end of this story, then you've walked every step of this journey with me, and with them. And that means more than I can fully put into words.This story was never just about wealth, power, or the high-stakes world Damian Blackwood came from. It wasn't even just about romance, though love sits at the center of it all. At its core, this book is about transformation, the kind that doesn't happen overnight, the kind that is messy, uncomfortable, and sometimes painful. The kind that asks you to grow when you'd rather stay small. The kind that doesn't announce itself with fanfare, but with quiet, daily decisions to be better than you were yesterday.Damian began as a man shaped by survival. Cold, controlled, untouchable. He built walls not because he wanted to be alone, but because he didn't know how to exist any other way. Arielle, on the other hand, carried her own quiet strength, resilient, compassionate, and determined to protect the people she loved, even at he

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 80 — Final Image

    Night arrived gently at the house, not as an intrusion but as a settling. The kind of night that didn’t demand vigilance or strategy, that didn’t press its weight against the windows. The lights inside glowed warm and unhurried, reflecting softly against the glass doors that opened onto the balcony. This place, home, Damian reminded himself, not a fortress, breathed differently after dark. The air carried the faint scent of jasmine from the garden below, mixed with the residual warmth of the day. Somewhere far off, a car passed, the sound distant and irrelevant. No alarms hummed beneath the walls. No guards patrolled the perimeter. No contingency plans waited to be activated. Damian stood barefoot on the balcony tiles, feeling the cool stone ground him. He wrapped his arms around Arielle from behind, fitting himself to her as if he’d always known the precise way their bodies aligned. She leaned back into him immediately, the motion unconscious, practiced, intimate. They stood like

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 79 — Epilogue: One Year Later

    The garden was alive in a way that felt deliberate. Not manicured into submission, or restrained into sterile beauty, but alive, sun-warmed grass bending under running feet, flowers opening without regard for symmetry, laughter spilling freely into the air like it had always belonged there. Arielle stood at the edge of it all for a moment, holding a glass of lemonade she hadn’t yet tasted, and let herself breathe it in. One year. One year since the war ended, since secrets were dragged into the light and stripped of their power. One year since fear stopped dictating the architecture of their lives. The banner stretched between two trees read Happy 10th Birthday, Emma! in bright, uneven lettering that Leo had enthusiastically “helped” paint earlier that morning. There were balloons tied to chairs, a long table filled with food that no one had bothered to arrange formally, and music playing softly from speakers tucked into the hedges. It wasn’t extravagant. It was intentional. E

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 78 — The Keep Revisited

    A twist of gravel climbed into the hills, much like a thought Damian hadn’t wanted to meet again. That grip on the wheel shifted when the gates appeared, cold and high under a washed, out sky. Safety used to live behind bars like that, bought without asking the price. Fear shaped him then, he built walls, thick with stone, sealed tight by metal, thinking it would hold everything dangerous outside while keeping what mattered most caged where he could see it. Out here, when the gates swung wide, what met their ears wasn’t quiet. It never is. It was laughter. Up high, wild, bouncing off the open space like sounds never did when Damian was around. Out of everyone, Emma saw it before anyone else, her nose almost touching the glass. Could that be the castle she’d heard stories about? She asked without turning around “It’s not a castle,” Damian said automatically, then stopped himself. He exhaled. “But it used to pretend it was.” Out of nowhere, Leo shifted slightly within Arie

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 77 — Family Portrait

    The photographer arrived at precisely ten in the morning, which Damian privately considered an act of mercy. Mornings, he had learned, were no longer his enemy. Nights belonged to Leo now, fragmented, demanding, relentless, but mornings had become something else entirely. Softer. Hopeful. Filled with the kind of light that crept through the windows and reminded him that he had survived another night and woken up to something worth everything he had ever fought for. Arielle was already awake when he came downstairs, hair pulled into a loose knot at the nape of her neck, Leo cradled against her shoulder as she hummed quietly. The melody wasn’t anything Damian recognized, something instinctive, wordless, but Leo responded to it, his tiny body relaxing, his fingers curling into the fabric of her shirt. Emma sat cross-legged on the living room floor, carefully arranging small stuffed animals into what looked like a protective semicircle around the baby’s play mat. “No elephants near hi

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 76 — Naming the Child

    Morning arrived quietly, as if the world itself knew better than to intrude too loudly on the fragile, sacred bubble surrounding them. Sunlight filtered through the hospital blinds in thin, golden slats, painting the white walls with warmth they did not deserve. The machines hummed softly, a steady rhythm beneath the deeper, more precious sound of a newborn’s breathing. Arielle woke first. Her body ached in places she hadn’t known existed, exhaustion sinking deep into her bones, but there was a profound, humming peace beneath it all. She turned her head slowly, careful not to disturb the small weight resting against her chest. Their son slept there, tiny fists curled, lips parted slightly as if still astonished by the world he had entered only hours ago. For a long moment, she simply watched him. Every lash. Every faint crease of skin. The rise and fall of his chest. She felt changed, not in the dramatic way novels promised, but in a quieter, deeper sense, as if something funda

  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 18 — DAMIAN’S OFFER

    The doctor’s words kept echoing in Arielle’s skull long after he left the room. Fifty-fifty. Hope for the best… prepare for the worst. It felt like someone had reached into her chest and squeezed, not enough to kill, but enough to make breathing an act of sheer willpower. Emma slept peacefully,

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-20
  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 17 — THE HOSPITAL VISIT

    Damian didn’t wait for Arielle to answer. The moment he saw her face, pale, streaked with tears, breathing shallow and uneven, something inside him snapped. He crouched down, hands gripping her arms with a steady but careful strength. “Arielle. What happen? who hurt you?” She shook her head, una

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-20
  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 16 — FRAGILE PEACE

    Arielle woke up with the feeling of something heavy sitting on her chest, not fear, not confusion, but the weight of what happened yesterday she keeps replaying Damian voice in her head, “Don’t leave.” His hands gripping her arms like a drowning man clinging to air. His body curling toward her

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-19
  • RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE    CHAPTER 14 — DANGEROUS ATTRACTION

    waking up tightly wrapped around Damian wasn't what she imagined, the guy is too cold for that.For a moment, she forgot where she was. All she felt was warmth, strong, solid, steady warmth, wrapped around her like a shield she didn’t deserve. Then the thunderless silence reminded her, the storm ha

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-19
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