Lahat ng Kabanata ng RUTHLESS HEARTS COLLIDE : Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

Arielle noticed it first in the quiet.Not dramatic but Just… absence. The house had settled into a rhythm lately, one that felt almost sacred in its ordinariness. Mornings smelled like coffee and toast. Emma’s laughter echoed down hallways that once felt cavernous. Damian slept through the night now, his breathing steady beside Arielle’s, no nightmares pulling him away into darkness. Life had softened. So when Arielle realized her period was late, it didn’t arrive as panic. It arrived as a whisper. She stood in the bathroom early that morning, sunlight creeping through the frosted window, staring at the small red circle on the calendar she kept tucked inside the cabinet. She counted again, slower this time. One day. Two. Three. Her heart began to thud, not fast, not frantic, but deep and heavy, like something important shifting its weight inside her. She leaned both palms against the sink, closing her eyes. Don’t jump ahead, she told herself. Stress did strange things to th

The room had once been an afterthought. It sat at the far end of the upper floor, tucked between a guest suite and a storage room Damian had never bothered to organize. For years, it had existed in a state of polite neglect, white walls, tall windows, nothing personal enough to require memory or attachment. It was the kind of room meant for transience, not permanence. Now, Damian stood in the doorway and felt something unfamiliar tighten in his chest. “This,” Arielle said, stepping beside him, one hand resting on her stomach, “is where they’ll sleep.” The words landed softly but carried weight. Damian nodded, swallowing. “It’s quiet here. Away from the street.” Emma peeked in behind them, arms crossed, surveying the space like a very serious consultant. “It needs color,” she announced. “No scary color, just happy color.” Arielle laughed. “Noted.” Damian took a step into the room, then another. The floorboards creaked faintly under his weight, as if acknowledging the change in

Morning arrived quietly, as if the world itself knew better than to intrude too loudly on the fragile, sacred bubble surrounding them. Sunlight filtered through the hospital blinds in thin, golden slats, painting the white walls with warmth they did not deserve. The machines hummed softly, a steady rhythm beneath the deeper, more precious sound of a newborn’s breathing. Arielle woke first. Her body ached in places she hadn’t known existed, exhaustion sinking deep into her bones, but there was a profound, humming peace beneath it all. She turned her head slowly, careful not to disturb the small weight resting against her chest. Their son slept there, tiny fists curled, lips parted slightly as if still astonished by the world he had entered only hours ago. For a long moment, she simply watched him. Every lash. Every faint crease of skin. The rise and fall of his chest. She felt changed, not in the dramatic way novels promised, but in a quieter, deeper sense, as if something funda

A twist of gravel climbed into the hills, much like a thought Damian hadn’t wanted to meet again. That grip on the wheel shifted when the gates appeared, cold and high under a washed, out sky. Safety used to live behind bars like that, bought without asking the price. Fear shaped him then, he built walls, thick with stone, sealed tight by metal, thinking it would hold everything dangerous outside while keeping what mattered most caged where he could see it. Out here, when the gates swung wide, what met their ears wasn’t quiet. It never is. It was laughter. Up high, wild, bouncing off the open space like sounds never did when Damian was around. Out of everyone, Emma saw it before anyone else, her nose almost touching the glass. Could that be the castle she’d heard stories about? She asked without turning around “It’s not a castle,” Damian said automatically, then stopped himself. He exhaled. “But it used to pretend it was.” Out of nowhere, Leo shifted slightly within Arie

Night arrived gently at the house, not as an intrusion but as a settling. The kind of night that didn’t demand vigilance or strategy, that didn’t press its weight against the windows. The lights inside glowed warm and unhurried, reflecting softly against the glass doors that opened onto the balcony. This place, home, Damian reminded himself, not a fortress, breathed differently after dark. The air carried the faint scent of jasmine from the garden below, mixed with the residual warmth of the day. Somewhere far off, a car passed, the sound distant and irrelevant. No alarms hummed beneath the walls. No guards patrolled the perimeter. No contingency plans waited to be activated. Damian stood barefoot on the balcony tiles, feeling the cool stone ground him. He wrapped his arms around Arielle from behind, fitting himself to her as if he’d always known the precise way their bodies aligned. She leaned back into him immediately, the motion unconscious, practiced, intimate. They stood like