Elena’s POV I took the service elevator to avoid the morning crowd, rehearsing the apology I’d offered a hundred times before and could deliver in my sleep: acknowledge, correct, compensate, restore confidence. It was a script that never failed me. I smoothed my blazer, lifted my hand, and knocked. The door opened, and the script disintegrated. Damien. He filled the threshold the way a storm fills a skyline: sudden, undeniable. His eyes, dark, searching, too familiar, locked on mine. Shock sparked there, then something softer, something I refused to name. My breath stalled. Every rehearsed word vanished. I should have turned around and left. I should have cut the moment off at the root before it could bloom into memory. But my body forgot how to move. We stared at each other like two people waking into the same dream. His lips parted. “Elena.” My name, barely a breath, still devastating. I felt the old ache flare, the one I’d sutured shut with work and willpower and years of s
Last Updated : 2025-09-09 Read more