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Althea’s povI jolted awake with a violent scream, drenched in sweat, tears streaking down my face. Every breath was a ragged tear in my chest.Damien burst into the room, panic flashing across his face."Althea... are you okay?" he asked, holding me close. I shivered, tears welling in my eyes. "They came... they came for me," I stammered. He pulled me closer, brushing wet strands of hair from my face. "Calm down... you're safe now," he soothed, his voice a low tone as he patted my back. The comfort was a need to my frayed nerves, and I leaned into him, clutching at his shirt. He gently cupped my face, his gaze intense. "I'm not going anywhere, Althea. It's okay Althea… you're okay.. You're safe here with me, I won't let anything happen to you, okay?" His eyes were mixed with sincerity and pain. I managed a shaky nod.It wasn't much at the time, but it gave me relief. I slumped on his shoulder holding him tight. He broke the hug and held my face. “I’m not leaving you again.. Okay?
Althea’s povI felt him before I heard him.A tight, burning sensation crawled up my spine the familiar, infuriating pull of his presence.Valerio.I turned sharply.He stood there, chest heaving, eyes wild, like a man who had sprinted through hell just to reach me.But that only made my anger sharper, colder.“What are you doing here?” I hissed. “Why are you here, Valerio?”His face tightened. “Let me explain, Dolcezza, I….”“Don’t.” My voice sliced the air. “Don’t call me that.”He froze.For a second… he looked like I’d slapped him.Good.“It’s almost funny,” I said slowly, bitterness burning through my throat. “I used to want nothing more than to hear that name from you. I even loved the way it sounded. And now?”I shook my head.“Now I detest it.”“Althea, please…” His voice cracked, soft but desperate.“You’re just like him.” I spat the words like poison. “Damien. A liar. A cheat.”His jaw clenched. “I’m nothing like him.”“You lied to me!” My voice rose despite my attempts to s
Althea’s PovThe next few days, the pattern deepened.He cooked again.Then he offered to drive me anywhere.Then he started talking… the kind of talking men only do when they’re trying to rebuild something they know they shattered.Stories. Regrets.Confessions wrapped as apologies.“I don’t know why I let things go the way they did,” he said one afternoon as we sat in the living room. “I tried to move on… I even tried to convince myself I was happy. But every time I saw you…”He stopped.I tilted my head. “Every time you saw me… what?”His jaw clenched. “It reminded me of everything I ruined.”There it was.The crack.The opening.I stepped closer, pretending to hesitate. “Damien… we can try to rebuild something. Maybe not what we had, but…”I let my voice soften into the version he remembered… warm, forgiving, naïve.A small, careful smile touched his lips…full of hope he didn’t deserve.Hook two.But…I let the softness drop like a blade.“That was what you expected me to say?” I
Althea’s POVDamien tried.God, he tried so hard it was almost embarrassing.By the second day in his house, the shift had already begun.He lingered near me more.He spoke softly, as if any wrong word might make me disappear again.He moved around me with an anxious gentleness, like he was holding his breath every time I walked by.And I watched it all.Coldly.Silently.Calculating.Exactly as a “clone made to adapt” would.“Are you hungry?” he asked that morning, peeking into the guest room like a hesitant child. His fingers gripped the doorframe a little too tightly. “I… I made breakfast.”Made breakfast.Damien.The man who once couldn’t put water on fire without supervision.I smiled sweetly. “Sure. Thank you.”His shoulders relaxed instantly, and he guided me downstairs. The living room hadn’t changed… except for the emotional residue. The memories. The betrayal. The place my old self used to sit, laugh, talk… and trust.Never again.The kitchen smelled like eggs, tomatoes, and
Damien’s povShe was here.Standing right in front of me as though the universe had finally taken pity on me after months…no, years of slow, gnawing misery.Althea.For a full second, I honestly thought it was a hallucination. Maybe lack of sleep. Maybe guilt. Maybe punishment. But when she blinked, when her lips moved, when she said my name in that voice that used to soften every part of me…I knew she was real.And the look she gave me…the slight curl of disgust she tried so hard to hide hit me like a punch to the chest. God, I deserved it. I deserved every bit of hate she carried.But she was here.And she came to me.It felt like a second chance wrapped in punishment.I don’t know what kind of man I’ve become lately. I don’t know how to explain the ache, the emptiness, the regret that sits in my bones every day. All I know is that ever since I chose wrong, ever since I walked away from her, something in me never recovered.I thought I loved Elara.I convinced myself I did.But som
Althea’s POVI was quarter way done with my plan.Seraphina’s empire was burning; her name was already a whispered curse among the criminals she had betrayed and a flashing red alert in government databases. One pest eradicated. One liar exposed.It was him next.Damien.The man who once swore to protect me. The man who let me go like I was nothing. The man who stood silently and watched my life shatter, then pretended guilt years later could magically reassemble what he broke.He thought regret was enough.He thought sorrow was redemption.He thought he could look at me with soft eyes… on his wedding day, on my birthday and imagine that forgiveness was something he could buy with a sigh and a pained expression.Idiot.Fool.Weak, sentimental little man.But his regret?His weakness?His attachment?I would use all of it.I would make him crawl.I would make him kneel.I would make him lick the ground I walked on if I wanted.And then I would break him.Slowly.Cruelly.And when his t







