Chapter Three: The Day I Walked Away

Elena's POV

I stood in the doorway, the fluorescent light harsh on my face, the bandage on my arm suddenly very visible. Lucas’s presence at my back felt like the only solid thing in the room.

Damian stood slowly. “Bella was in shock. The gun and the screaming made her panic. She needed someone with her.”

“And I needed my fiancé.” My voice stayed level. I was proud of that. “You left me in a treatment room while a doctor stitched my arm. You didn’t even wait until the bleeding stopped.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “You’re being dramatic. It was just a graze. The doctors had you. Bella had no one.”

Isabella’s soft voice floated from the bed. “Damian, please don’t fight because of me. Elena’s hurt. Of course she’s upset. I understand completely.”

My stomach turned.

I stepped farther into the room. “What about me, Damian? When do I get to matter more than her?”

His expression hardened. “Stop making everything about yourself. Bella nearly died tonight. The least I can do is sit with her.”

“She didn’t nearly die. The bullet hit me, Damian.”

“Because I pushed her out of the way. Because I did what any decent person would do.” He took a step toward me. “You’re acting like I chose her over you on purpose. It was instinct. Seconds. And now you’re turning it into some grand betrayal.”

Isabella slid carefully off the bed. Bare feet on cold tile. She walked toward me with slow, careful steps, like she was still fragile.

“Elena,” Isabella whispered, her voice trembling with false vulnerability, “please don’t blame Damian because of me. I never wanted to come between you two.”

Her blue eyes glistened as she looked at me.

“You’re the woman he chose. You’re his fiancée. I’m just…” Her voice cracked as she lowered her gaze. “I’m just an old friend who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

For a second, I almost laughed.

The wrong place?

The wrong time?

As if she hadn't appeared at our anniversary dinner. As if she hadn't sat between us all evening while Damian forgot I even existed.

She took a hesitant step toward me.

“Please, Elena. I don't want you to hate me.”

Her hand reached for mine.

Something inside me recoiled.

“Don't touch me.”

I pulled my hand away.

And suddenly…

“Ah!”

Isabella stumbled backward.

My breath caught.

She hadn't merely lost her balance.

I could swear she threw herself back.

Her body slammed against the edge of the hospital bed, and her cry tore through the room.

“Elena!”

The sound of my name left her lips like an accusation.

She collapsed against the floor beside the bed, clutching her wrist as though I had violently shoved her.

For one horrifying second, I could only stare at her.

Then Isabella looked up at me.

Through the tears gathering in her eyes, I saw it.

The faintest flicker of satisfaction.

And I knew.

She had planned it.

Every single second of it.

Damian was already moving.

He didn't even look at me.

Didn't ask what happened.

Didn't give me a single second to explain.

He went straight to her.

“Bella!”

He dropped to his knees beside Isabella, his hands immediately finding her shoulders as if he were afraid she might break beneath his touch.

“Are you okay?” His voice shook with panic. “Did she hurt you?”

I stared at him.

Did I hurt her?

The question echoed inside my head.

Not what happened?

Not Elena, are you all right?

Nothing.

He had already decided I was guilty.

Then Isabella let out a small, broken sob.

That was all it took.

Damian's head snapped toward me.

And the look in his eyes made my blood run cold.

“Are you out of your mind?” he shouted.

I barely had time to take a breath.

Then he came toward me.

“Damian, wait… I…”

The words never left my mouth.

His hand slammed into my shoulder.

The force of it sent me stumbling backward.

“Ah!”

My injured arm struck the edge of the doorframe.

A bolt of white-hot pain tore through me.

For one terrible second, I couldn't breathe.

Then my knees gave out.

I hit the floor hard.

Pain exploded through my arm and shot up to my collarbone. My vision blurred. The cold hospital tile pressed against my skin as I instinctively curled around my injured arm.

The room went silent.

Not because everyone was shocked.

Because no one expected Damian to put his hands on me.

Least of all me.

“ELENA!”

Lucas's roar shook the room.

I looked up just in time to see him charge.

He crossed the distance between us in seconds, his fist already raised.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Damian barely had time to turn.

Two orderlies rushed into the room, grabbing Lucas by the arms before his fist could connect with Damian's face.

“Let me go!”

Lucas fought against them violently, his eyes locked on Damian.

“LET ME GO!”

“Lucas!” I gasped, trying to push myself up.

He didn't even look at me.

All he could see was Damian.

“You put your hands on my sister again,” Lucas snarled, his entire body trembling with rage, “and I swear to God, I will make you regret the day you ever met her.”

Damian's face was flushed.

But instead of looking ashamed, instead of looking horrified, he looked furious.

“She attacked Bella!” he shouted. “What the hell was I supposed to do?”

My heart stopped.

I stared at him.

At the man who had known me for twelve years.

At the man who was supposed to marry me.

And in that moment, I understood something far more painful than the wound burning through my arm.

He hadn't even considered that Isabella could be lying.

He didn't need proof.

He didn't need an explanation.

One tear from Isabella, and Damian had already chosen her.

I stayed on the floor. The pain in my arm was sharp and clean. The pain everywhere else was something else entirely.

Isabella cried softly against Damian’s chest. He murmured something into her hair, one hand stroking her back.

I pushed myself up slowly, using the wall for balance. My legs shook. No one offered a hand.

When I stood up, I looked at Damian.

I really looked at the man I had loved since I was fifteen. At the man who had just pushed me to the floor to protect someone else.

The diamond caught the harsh hospital light as I slowly slid it from my finger.

For twelve years, I had believed that ring represented my future.

A promise.

A life.

Now, all I could see was another lie.

I took one step toward Damian.

He watched me, still holding Isabella, his expression filled with the same certainty that had kept me trapped beside him for years.

As if he already knew I would forgive him.

As if I always would.

My fingers tightened around the ring.

Then I threw it at him.

The ring struck his chest before falling into his hand.

“We're done.”

Silence filled the room.

Even Isabella’s soft sniffles quieted.

Damian looked down at the ring. Then he laughed.

Short.

Disbelieving.

“Stop being dramatic, Elena.”

I didn’t move.

He closed his fingers around the ring. “You’ll come crawling back.”

Something inside my chest cracked open and went still.

“Why are you so sure?”

His eyes met mine.

There was no softness left in them. Only the arrogant certainty of a man who had never had to fight for what he wanted because it had always been handed to him.

“Because you have nowhere to go.”

The words settled over me like ash.

I looked at him one last time. At the woman still tucked against his side. At the ring glinting between his fingers. Twelve years of excuses and second places and quiet hopes that someday I would be enough.

Then I turned away.

“You’re wrong, Damian.”

He smirked. I felt it more than I saw it.

“Am I?”

I walked out of the room without answering. Lucas was still being held back by the orderlies. Samantha reached for me, but I kept moving. Down the corridor. Past the nurses’ station. Toward the exit signs glowing red in the distance.

For the first time in twelve years, I didn’t know where I was going.

But I knew one thing with absolute clarity.

I would not stay.

And if Damian Hawthorne truly believed I had nowhere to go, then he was about to discover just how wrong he was.