LOGINSera's POV
Two weeks.
Fourteen days since Elena's fingers had twitched. Fourteen days since Damon had kissed my forehead and promised that everything would be over soon. Fourteen days of waiting, hoping, slowly dying inside.
But somewhere along the way, I had stopped counting.
Sera's POVMy breath caught in my throat. The horror of what Damon's mother was describing made my chest feel like it was being crushed."What did you see?" I whispered. "At the cliff?"She took a shaky breath, her hands trembling as she wiped at her tear-stained face.
Sera's POVThe woman before me was not the one I remembered.Gone was the haughty, imperious matriarch who had looked down on me from the moment we first met. Gone was the cold calculation in her eyes, the cruel curve of her lips, the regal posture that demanded submission from everyone around her.In her place sat someone broken. Diminished. Hollowed out.
Sera's POVSomething was deeply wrong with Damon.We sat in the living room that evening, the silence between us thick and suffocating. He was supposed to be present, supposed to be with me, but his mind was clearly somewhere else entirely.I watched him from the corner of my eye as he sat on the couch, his fingers picking restlessly at the blanket draped over his lap. His knee bo
Damon's POV"Damon…!" My mother's voice wavered, but I saw no remorse in her eyes. Only calculation. Only the desperate scramble to find a way out of this."How long?" My voice came out as a growl, barely human. "How long have you been drugging her?"My mother's chin lifted defiantly. "Everything I did was to protect you—"
Sera's POVThe morning air was crisp and cold, biting at my exposed skin as I stretched on the front porch in my workout clothes.I hadn't slept well. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Damon's accusatory face, heard his cruel words echoing in my head. But lying in bed feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to solve anything. Exercise, at least, would give me something to focus on.
Sera's POVI stood at the top of the stairs, my hand still gripping the railing, staring at the man I no longer recognized.The Damon I had fallen in love with would never have accused me of such things. Would never have looked at me with such suspicion and contempt. Would never have made me feel like a criminal for having dinner with a friend.But this Damon, the one standing in







