148 Chapter 148

Damien’s POV 1

The drive back felt like driving through concrete.

Every mile stretched into eternity. The road blurred in front of me, headlights from oncoming cars like distant stars in a universe that

had stopped making sense.

Ophelia sat in the passenger seat, her silence heavy with all the things she wasn’t saying. I could feel her looking at me every few minutes, checking to see if I was going to fall apart.

Maybe I already had.

“Damien,” she said finally, her voice careful. “We can keep looking. This doesn’t mean–“”

“It means exactly what it fucking means.” My hands tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles went white. “She’s gone. She’s

really gone.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Don’t I?” I laughed, but it came out broken. Wrong. “I was so sure, Ophelia. So goddamn sure I’d find her there. That I’d see her face and

everything would be–”

My voice cracked. I couldn’t finish.

“We’ll keep searching,” Ophelia said firmly. “We’ll check every town, every city, every–”

“No.” The word came out flat. “No more searching.”

She turned to stare at me. “What?”

“I can’t do this anymore.” The admission tasted like poison.

“So you’re just giving up?”

I’m accepting reality.” Each word felt like pulling teeth. “She doesn’t want to be found. And maybe… maybe that’s for the best.”

“You don’t mean that.”

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Because part of me did mean it, and that was the worst part.

into the driveway. After midnight.

the

Crying.

worse. Something

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148 Chapter 148

Adrian.

sound to his room. The door was cracked

nightlight.

his small body

room in two strides, sitting

his face streaked with tears, his silver–blue eyes red and swollen. My eyes. Sera’s nose.

of us.

so small, so broken. “You didn’t

buddy.” My voice cracked. “I tried. I

voice was new,

“I know–“”

hands balled into fists.

my chest. Because he was right. I

him, but he scrambled back

you

his face. “Why doesn’t she want to come home? Why doesn’t she

came out fierce, desperate. “Adrian, listen to me. Your mother loves you more than

her own

did she leave?” His voice broke completely. “If

arms, holding him tight against my chest while he sobbed. His small body shook with the force of it, three

pouring out all at

first time he’d cried. For three weeks, he’d been so brave, so strong, asking

lies.

I explain it when I didn’t understand it myself? How could I tell my son that his mother thought she wasn’t

herself we were

They’d poisoned her. Tortured

they’d come after our

like lightning. Everything suddenly clicked into

She’d never been weak. But she was terrified. Terrified that

Lily next.

Not because she thought she wasn’t good enough–but

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