Chapter 46: Elena's Story

The living room was quiet, the kind of silence that pressed on Damian’s chest like a weight. He had thought he had seen and survived everything, betrayals, business wars, love turned to ashes. But nothing compared to what he was feeling now.

The woman sitting on his sofa, her posture too calm for someone who had supposedly returned from the grave, carried his sister’s face. The same sharp jawline, the same amber-brown eyes he remembered from his youth, eyes that had once sparkled with mischief when she used to sneak sweets from the kitchen and dare him to keep her secrets.

But those eyes now held something else. Weariness. Darkness. Secrets too heavy for one person to bear.

Damian stood frozen, his knuckles white from how tightly he gripped the back of the chair in front of him. He wanted to cross the room, to drag her into his arms and demand to know why she had left him to mourn her all these years. He also wanted to shake her, to scream until his voice broke, to make her feel even