All Chapters of Claimed by his obsession : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Damien's POVPortugal arrived faster than six weeks felt like it should.Between the foundation, the aerospace consulting, Elijah's ongoing legal cleanup of the Vale estate assets, and the general business of running BCT, the weeks folded into each other quickly, and then suddenly it was a Tuesday morning and we were all standing in the entrance hall with luggage, waiting for cars, and Remy was arguing with Elijah about whether four bags counted as overpacking."It's a two week trip," Elijah said."I have contingencies," Remy said."For what," Elijah said. "A formal event in a fishing village.""You never know," Remy said, which settled nothing but ended the argument because Remy always won by simply refusing to continue it.Sophia came down the stairs with one bag and the ring catching the morning light and I thought, not for the first time, that she had always understood the art of taking only what mattered.Richard was already outside by the car, standing slightly apart the way he

Sophia's POVThe market smelled like fish and oranges.I walked between the stalls with Damien beside me, his hand loose around mine. A woman held up a string of dried peppers and said something in Portuguese I didn't understand. Damien answered her in slow careful words and she laughed and gave us two peppers anyway."You speak Portuguese," I said."I spent three days learning basic phrases before we came," he said."Three days," I said."I wanted to be able to order coffee properly," he said. He shrugged. "It felt important."I looked at him."What," he said."Nothing," I said. "I just like that about you."He took the peppers from the woman and put them in the small bag he was carrying and we kept walking.Remy caught up with us near a stall selling cheese, his arms already full of paper bags."Try this," he said, breaking off a piece and holding it out to me.I took it. It was sharp and salty and good."Good," I said."See," Remy said, turning to Elijah who had appeared behind him

Sophia's POVI sat on the terrace steps and watched them from a distance, close enough to hear, far enough to give them room.Richard leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, looking up at the darkening sky like the stars might arrive early if he asked nicely."There's one there," he said, pointing. "Not visible yet. It'll come up over that ridge in about twenty minutes. Your mother used to call it the lazy star because it was always the last one to show."Damien followed his finger, though there was nothing there yet."I don't remember her," he said quietly. "Diana, from before. I only remember you and the stars."Richard's hand dropped slowly."She was different then," he said. "Before everything. Before the money and the fear took over." He paused. "I think I loved her the way you love someone standing at the edge of a cliff. You keep waiting for them to fall.""Did she," Damien said."Eventually," Richard said. "We both did. In different directions."The sea moved somewhere be

Sophia's POVThe vows were simple.Damien had written his the night before, alone on the terrace after everyone else had gone to bed, and he read them now with his hands holding mine, steady even though his voice wasn't quite."I used to think love was a liability," he said. "Something that made you weak, something people used against you. I built my whole life around never being that vulnerable again." He paused, looking at me properly. "Then you slid under a turnstile with nothing but a rejection letter and completely dismantled twenty one years of careful planning in about four minutes."Remy laughed softly from somewhere behind me. Someone shushed him."I don't regret a single second of it," Damien continued. "Not the whiskey I handed you instead of comfort, not the crackers I called breakfast, not any of the ways I got this wrong before I finally got it right. I promise to keep making you eggs. I promise to keep reading whatever you leave open on your laptop, because I can't seem

Sophia's POVHome felt different when we got back.Not smaller. Just quieter in a new way, the estate carrying the hush of a place that had been empty for two weeks and was still stretching itself awake.Damien set our bags down in the entrance hall and looked around slowly."It feels strange," he said. "Being back.""Good strange," I said."Yes," he said. "Just strange."The others came in behind us with their own luggage. Within an hour the estate had returned to its usual noise. Remy opened the fridge, sighed loudly, and said "there's nothing in here," even though nobody had expected there to be. Elijah sat at the kitchen table and opened his laptop before he'd even taken his coat off. Zane's plant sat exactly where he'd left it, slightly bigger, watered by the housekeeper on Mei's instructions the whole time we were away.Dominic disappeared into his office within twenty minutes. He came back out an hour later looking mildly annoyed."You look upset that the company survived witho