CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

The Snow Lie 

Elena's POV 

I stayed awake beside him, still in deep shock as he slept soundly like a baby. He turned his head slightly, showing how much he was enjoying his sleep. I had a lot of questions in my head. Too many that I didn't know where to begin with. 

“Damon…” I finally whispered his name, testing my ability to still hold a conversation. My voice was low, and very tentative, almost a whisper. “Do you… do you even care... about what you just said?”

There was no answer from him. I clenched my fists, my teeth pressing very hard into my lower lip. Of course not, why would he when I let myself down?

Unable to bear the suffocating silence between us, I decided to do something, anything to keep my mind active and sane, so I grabbed my laptop from the nightstand. My fingers shook slightly as I opened it. It was exactly 2 a.m., the time the world outside was still, and very silent...but somehow, I managed to be among the restless who were still up, that's if there were people like me. My thoughts were like wildfire. So, I quickly typed “Japanese winter flights from December to January,” and I was hoping everything he told me would be all correct. I needed clarity, to know the exact point he started fooling me. 

In seconds, different weather reports popped up. From snow warnings, to storm advisories, and even flight cancellations. I scrolled carefully, to get all the details I needed. And then my stomach dropped at what I saw. 

Nothing was severe enough to the point of losing two weeks. Or a whole month in the dark.

I swallowed hard, my heart hammering uncontrollably. I pulled up our original flight booking, and it was December 18. The actual departure date was January 22. My fingers hovered over the mouse, trembling in ways I never imagined, before finally clicking through the rescheduling details. I saw manual rescheduling, and payment authorization. The communication was direct with the airport officials, and all approved by Damon.

I shut my eyes, hoping it would clear when I finally opened them, but it didn't. The snow didn’t trap us as he said. He actually did.

I thought of that one memorable month...the one I had held since day one in my heart like sacred treasure. His hands warm against mine, pulling me into the small pool, whispering sweet nothings, and brushing my ears, leaving me with a tingling sensation. 

“Maybe the storm wanted us here at this time,” he had said once, his curvy lips grazing my knuckles like they were the best he had set his eyes on. So tender, so intentional, so utterly him that I fell head over heels.

I had fallen so hard that standing looked impossible. So hard for the man who was supposed to be mine... both heart and soul. Not the one with the memory of another woman, not a replacement of the one he truly wanted. 

I remembered the night we got intimate after our marriage in that snowy little town. How he had pressed his forehead to mine, how he had made me laugh until my sides hurt. How he had kissed me in ways that made my pulse go wild, even my body forgot the rest of the world, and my soul was left thinking, This is real, he loves me, and he chose me.

And yet… here I was. Back home, after he had been drunk enough to let the truth slip through the careless words of his friends.

I stared at the dark ceiling of our bedroom, the city outside unable to reach me. I felt tears sting my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I was shaking, yes...but not weak as he would want me to be. Though not yet. If I must be weak, I had to know first. I had to understand why I should be.

I leaned over, opening the laptop again, scrolling through the rescheduling records, the communications, the fees. He had planned the entire month. He had engineered the snow, the isolation, the stolen moments, the illusions of love all for what. 

I wanted to scream my lungs out. I wanted to cry till only blood could come out. I wanted to throw the laptop across the room and never see him again. But instead… I felt a deeper, colder ache in me. One I hadn’t felt before. The ache of realizing that perhaps all the love I thought I had received was… a lie. Or at least… a half-truth.

I pressed my palms into my eyes. “Why?” I whispered to no one, to everything, to him. “Why did you do it? Why make me fall when… when someone else has your heart?”

And then the thought struck me like lightning. Was it even love at all? Or just… control? Obsession? A gamble with my heart? An experiment he was playing with his dumb friends?

I sank back against the headboard, my heart vet heavy with disbelief. The snow had been beautiful, serene, romantic...but now every frozen drop of it felt like a lie, like a trap I had walked into willingly.

And I realized, while shaking with both rage and heartbreak; Damon had crafted not just memories, but my attachment. Every tender kiss, every whispered promise he made, every stolen laugh..it had all been designed to make me fall. But fall for what exactly? For him? Or for the version of him that he allowed me to see?

The room remained silent, to the point I could hear the faint tick of the bedside clock. Every second felt like a pulse of accusation against me. 

I didn’t move, as I couldn’t. I sat frozen, my heart pounding, my mind racing with questions I didn’t dare speak aloud. And deep down, a new, terrifying understanding gradually settled in.

The snow had not trapped us. He had trapped us. Then a loud question rang deep in me; If he could plan an entire month of my life… of my love… how much of the man I married is real? And how much is just a story he wrote for himself just to feel good?

At this point, I knew the answer would either break the remaining me completely… or make me stronger than I had ever been.