Chapter 133
The knock was soft, followed by the quiet creak of the door opening. I looked up from the blanket r’d been fiddling with, and the doctor stepped in, clipboard in hand, a calm smile on his face
“Good morning, Ms. Montel,” he said as he approached. “How are we feeling today?”
“Better,” I said honestly, my voice still a little hoarse but steadier than before. “Stronger.”
“That’s what we like to hear.” He moved around the bed, checking the monitors, joing down a few notes. “Your vitals look stable The healing’s coming along faster than we projected. We’ll run another scan this evening, but if it looks clean..” He smiled. “You might be out of here sooner than expected.”
A smile tugged at my lips. For the first time in what felt like years, I felt like I was climbing out of the dark. “Thank you.”
“You’ve done most of the work,” he replied, offering a nod before heading for the door. “I’ll be back later
The door shut softly behind him, and I sat in the quiet, letting the good news settle. I looked toward the window. The sky was soft with morning light, and something in my chest lifted just a little.
Then the door opened again.
I turned, expecting a nurse.
It was Dominic.
He stepped in, slow and silent, dressed in black, his jaw sharp and set. The door clicked shut behind him, and he stood there, still, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to be in the room at all.
“Hey,” I said softly, my smile faltering when he didn’t answer.
He didn’t meet my eyes.
Just walked forward, his steps heavy. He sat in the chair beside the bed, but didn’t reach for my hand like he usually did. Didn’t brush the hair from my face. Didn’t speak.
“Is something wrong?” I asked quietly.
Still nothing.
Ishifted slightly, wincing a bit at the movement. “I woke up earlier and didn’t see you. I thought maybe…”
Nothing.
He just stared at the floor like it held answers he hadn’t found yet.
“Dominic,” I whispered. “Talk to me.”
He finally looked up, and something in his face something I couldn’t name–made my heart twist. His eyes were darker than usual, the kind of dark that wasn’t about anger, but something deeper. Something broken.
His voice was low when he finally spoke. A whisper that sliced through the air like ice.
“You betrayed me.”
The words didn’t make sense at first. I blinked, confused, sitting up straighter as my pulse stumbled. “What?”
Dominic didn’t move. He just stared at me, unreadable. His eyes those dark, cold eyes–were colder than I’d ever seen them.
“You heard me.”
I shook my head slowly, trying to find ground. “Dominic, I–I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You kissed him,” he said, and though his voice didn’t rise, it cracked with something sharp. “You kissed Nico.”
My heart sank. The world tilted sideways. “I didn’t-” I stopped. “He kissed me.”
“And you let him?” he snapped, though his voice remained terrifyingly quiet. “You didn’t pull away? You didn’t think to tell me?”
My mouth opened, then closed. I struggled to find the right words, to explain what even I hadn’t fully processed.
“I was scared,” I said finally, voice trembling. “He cornered me when I tried to escape. He said he could help me, get me away from all this. I didn’t know who to trust–I didn’t even trust you back then.”
Dominic stood abruptly, the chair scraping back against the floor. “So you chose him.”
“No,” I said quickly. “He approached me. I didn’t reach out to him–I swear, I didn’t initiate anything.”
He paced slowly, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “And Emilia?”
My stomach twisted. “I didn’t know what she was at first. I thought she was just helping. She was kind to me. I didn’t know she was connected to Mikael until-”
“Until what?” he cut in. “Until I dragged you back from the edge? Until after you spilled every piece of my world to men who
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Chapter 133
want to see me burn?”
“I didn’t betray you,” I said firmly this time. “Yes, I was scared. Yes, I made mistakes. But I never gave Nico anything. I never told him your secrets. I never wanted to hurt you.”
He stopped pacing, turned back to me.
“What about the kiss?”
My voice caught. I swallowed hard. “It meant nothing.”
“Did he promise you that if you betray me…he would give you freedom? Did you tell him no or that you would consider it?”
I hesitated.
And that second of silence just one breath too long sealed everything.
Dominic’s expression didn’t flinch. No rage. No shouting. Just cold, pure detachment.
His voice cut through the room like the slice of a blade.
“I don’t trust you.”
The silence that followed felt louder than the machines humming beside me. I stared at him, blinking fast, trying to make sense of what had just come out of his mouth. Not I’m hurt, not I need space–but I don’t trust you.
It felt final. Brutal.
Like a door slamming shut in the middle of a sentence.
“You don’t mean that,” I whispered, my voice cracking around the words.
He didn’t even blink. “Julian will come get you in the morning. He’ll make sure you get home.”
“Home?” I echoed, the word dry in my mouth. “You’re sending me away?”
Dominic stepped back, adjusting his cuffs like we were discussing business, not shattering whatever fragile thing we’d been trying to rebuild. “There’s nothing more to say.”
“But you said we’d try,” I said, my throat tight, each word straining out of me. “You said-”
“That was before I found out the truth.”
Tears blurred my vision. I sat frozen, hands trembling in my lap, heart pounding so loud I could barely hear myself think.” You’ve done worse to me,” I said hoarsely. “You’ve lied. Controlled. Hurt me in ways you can’t even name.”
He stilled at that, but didn’t speak.
“So now you get to play victim?” I whispered. “You get to look at me like I’m the monster? Uou are the monster. Not me!”
His silence was worse than anything he could have said.
I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes, trying to hold it together. “You promised me something real, Dominic.”
“And you kissed the man trying to kill me,” he said coolly. “Whether you meant it or not, it happened.”
“So that’s it?” I asked, voice rising. “One mistake, and I’m disposable? You can cut me off like nothing? Is it the kiss that hurt you the most of the fact that I wanted to accept his offer because right now I don’t understand you.”
He turned toward the door.
And that was when I broke.
“I loved you,” I said, almost like a curse. “Through everything. Through the pain and the fear and the nights I hated myself for wanting you. And you can’t even fight for me?”
He paused.
But didn’t turn around.
“Julian will be here when you’re discharged,” he said without emotion. “Be ready.”
Then he walked out, and the door clicked closed behind him.
I sank into the bed, shaking, breath catching in my throat, and I let myself fall apart. The sobs came fast, too raw to stop. I cried until my chest ached and my side flared and the room swam with blurred edges.
I had lost him.
Not because I stopped loving him–but because he stopped believing in me.
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