CHAPTER 5: SECOND CHANCES

Damien: Pov.

I sat in my study the next morning with my phone in my hand and the weight of my mother’s words still pressing against my chest.

Vanessa’s name glowed on the screen. I had been staring at it for a long time. Five years. That was how long we had been together before I walked away and married someone else. The memory of those years sat quietly in the back of my mind — the dinners, the plans, the way she used to look at me like I was steady and certain. I had promised her a future once. Then I met Ava and everything changed.

I pressed the call button before I could change my mind.

She answered on the third ring.

“Damien?” Her voice was careful, almost cold.

“I hope I’m not calling at a bad time,” I said.

“No. I just wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”

There was a short silence on the line. I could hear the faint sound of her breathing.

“I’ve been thinking,” I said. “About us. About everything that happened.”

She let out a quiet, humorless breath.

“Everything that happened,” she repeated. “You mean the part where you left me after five years and married a woman who turned out to be a thief and a liar?”

I closed my eyes. The words landed harder than I expected.

“Vanessa—”

“No,” she cut in, her voice sharper now. “You don’t get to call me after all this time and act like we’re starting from nothing. You promised me a future, Damien. You told me you wanted to marry me. Then you met her and suddenly I was the one left standing there looking like a fool.”

“I didn’t know what she was,” I said. My voice came out rougher than I intended. “I didn’t know she would steal from the company. I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you like that.”

“You chose her,” Vanessa said. The pain in her voice was clear now. “You stood in front of everyone and chose her. And now that she’s gone and the scandal is still following you, you suddenly remember I exist?”

“That’s not why I’m calling.”

“Isn’t it?” Her voice was quiet but full of old hurt. “Because it feels exactly like that.”

I didn’t answer right away. The truth sat heavily between us. Part of this call was about the company. Part of it was about my mother’s pressure. And part of it was the quiet knowledge that I had once built a life with Vanessa and then thrown it away without looking back.

“I was wrong,” I said finally. “About a lot of things. I’m not asking you to forget what I did. I’m asking if there’s any chance we can try again. Properly this time.”

The line stayed silent for several seconds.

“I’ll think about it,” she said at last. Her voice was calmer, but the hurt was still there. “That’s all I can give you right now.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

The call ended. I set the phone down on the desk and stared at it. There was no relief in my chest. Only a deeper emptiness than before. I leaned back in the chair and let the silence of the study settle around me. The city moved beyond the windows, but I barely noticed it.

Later that afternoon I called my mother.

“I spoke to Vanessa,” I told her.

“And?” Her voice was calm, but I could hear the expectation underneath.

“She’s willing to consider it. She needs time.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “Time is acceptable. Progress is what matters. You’re finally doing the right thing, Damien. The board will see this as stability. The public will see that the Blackwood name is moving forward again.”

“I know.”

“Don’t let her take too long,” she added. “People forget scandals faster when there is a new story to replace them. Make sure this becomes the new story.”

I didn’t answer. Her approval felt more like a weight than a comfort. I ended the call and sat in silence for a while, the emptiness in my chest settling deeper.

At the office, Nathaniel was already in the meeting room when I arrived. He looked up from his laptop.

“I heard you reached out to Vanessa,” he said. His tone was even, but something in his expression tightened for a second.

“I did.”

He nodded slowly. “That’s… good. For the company.”

The pause before the last words lasted a moment too long.

“You don’t sound sure,” I said, watching him carefully.

Nathaniel looked back at his screen too quickly. “I’m sure. It’s the practical choice. After everything that happened, the company needs calm. Vanessa understands that world.”

“You think it’s the right decision?”

He hesitated. Just for a second. Then he forced a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“I think it’s the decision that will keep things stable,” he said. “That’s what matters right now.”

He changed the subject after that, asking about the quarterly reports, but the tightness around his eyes stayed with me long after the conversation ended.

That night I sat alone in the dark apartment, replaying both conversations. Vanessa’s pain. My mother’s satisfaction. Nathaniel’s strange pause.

I picked up my phone and stared at the screen.

Something about Nathaniel’s reaction had not been normal.

And for the first time, I could not push the feeling away.