All Chapters of LOVE BENEATH RIVALRY : Chapter 81 - Chapter 85

A week had passed.Seven days since Elisa had woken up in a strange bed, in a strange house, with the ghost of death still clinging to her skin.Seven days of quiet.The house Damian lived in was nothing like the Greyhound estate. It was large, yes—clearly expensive—but it didn’t feel like a fortress. There were no armed guards standing at every corner, no suffocating silence laced with threat. Sunlight streamed freely through wide windows. The walls were painted in warm, neutral tones. Everything felt… lived in.Safe.And yet, safety was something Elisa still didn’t know how to exist inside of.She spent most of her days in one of the guest bedrooms—her room now—sitting by the window or curled up on the bed, lost somewhere between memories and exhaustion. Damian never forced her to talk. Never demanded explanations. He moved around her carefully, as if afraid a single wrong step might shatter her.Their relationship changed slowly, cautiously.Every morning, without fail, Damian brou

Three months had passed.Three months since Elisa had crossed the gates of Rowan’s villa.Three months since she had last stepped into the outside world.The days blurred together inside those walls—quiet, heavy, suffocating. Curtains were always drawn. Doors always locked. Footsteps always made her flinch. Even sunlight felt dangerous, like it could betray her location to the wrong eyes.She hadn’t left.Not once.Not for air.Not for walks.Not for freedom.Fear had become her second skin.The phone rang.Elisa stared at it for a long time before answering.“…Hello?”“Elisa.” Rowan’s voice came through, calm but firm. “You didn’t eat again, did you?”She swallowed. “I wasn’t hungry.”“You haven’t been hungry for three months,” he replied quietly.She said nothing.“I want you to come have lunch with me,” Rowan said. “At my office.”Her heart dropped.“No.” The word came out sharp, instinctive. “I can’t.”“Why?”“You know why,” she whispered. “I don’t go out.”“Elisa—”“I don’t leave

The bathroom door was closed.Elisa leaned over the sink, gripping the porcelain so tightly her knuckles had gone white. Her reflection stared back at her—pale, hollow, eyes rimmed red. Sweat clung to her temples, damp strands of newly dyed black hair sticking to her cheeks.Her stomach twisted violently.She barely managed to turn before retching again, her body convulsing as bile burned her throat. The sound echoed too loudly in the quiet space. She coughed, gasping, eyes watering as she straightened with trembling hands.“Pull yourself together,” she whispered hoarsely.For days now, every meal had betrayed her. Her body, weakened from months of starvation, rejected nourishment like poison. Eat—vomit. Eat—vomit. Over and over again.She rinsed her mouth, pressing a shaking hand to her aching stomach, breathing through the nausea until it dulled.That was when she heard a different voice, not that of the assistant and receptionist she had met earlier on. This one sounded more mascul