CH 5
When I opened my eyes again, the System had transported me back to my old room in that other world.
The door behind me clicked open. Damian stood in the doorway. The moment he saw me, the tray in his hands crashed to the floor. He stared as if he were seeing a ghost, frozen for several seconds before the reality of my presence sank in.
His eyes, once empty, now blazed with a terrifying mix of love and hatred.
“Nina,” he breathed, a humorless laugh escaping his lips. “So, you finally came back.”
“I’m only here to tell you to stop looking for me,” I said coldly. “It was all a lie.”
He let out another low, hoarse laugh. “A lie? Yes. Of course. From the very beginning, I was the lie.” He suddenly lunged forward, slamming me against the wall, his hand closing around my throat. “Jean White, is it? You left me for him! How dare you, Nina! How
dare you!”
My eyes darted to the table and landed on a worn–out notebook. It was the journal I kept when I first arrived in this world, where I wrote down my memories of Jean. He must have found it. No wonder he was unhinged.
“Nina, how could you?” he seethed, his voice a raw wound. “How could you say you loved me while your heart belonged to someone
else?”
His grip was fierce, yet he held back, afraid to truly hurt me. He let go, smashing his fist into the wall beside my head, the corners of his eyes red with unshed tears.
“I never loved you,” I said, my voice devoid of all emotion. “The only reason I came to you was to resurrect Jean.”
Damian must have already known the truth from the System, but hearing the words from my own mouth seemed to rip his heart from his chest.
“Shut up!” he roared, grabbing my chin and crushing his lips against mine. It wasn’t a kiss; it was a punishment, brutal and bruising. “Get off!” I kicked and struggled, but he simply absorbed the blows, wrapping an arm around my waist and throwing me onto the bed. He pinned my hands above my head, his voice a dark, hollow whisper.
“Nina, I’m never letting you go again.”
I tried to kick him off, but a sharp, sudden pain seized my abdomen. It was the baby. The pain was so intense my face went white. Damian’s fury vanished, replaced instantly by alarm.
He scrambled to my side, pulling me into his arms. “Nina, what’s wrong? What is it? Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me again!”
He kicked the door open and rushed me to the emergency room.
“The patient just needs to avoid emotional distress,” the doctor said calmly after examining me. “The baby is fine.”
At those words, Damian’s hand, which was still holding mine, began to tremble. “You’re pregnant? With whose child? Is it Jean’s? I‘||
kill him! I swear I’ll kill him!”
Seeing the murderous intent in his eyes, I shrank away from him. “You dare touch him, and I will never forgive you!”
My cold, defensive tone was like a dagger to his heart. “Nina, do you have any idea what my life has been like since you left? You were by my side for so long, you loved me so much… was there not one single moment of truth in any of it?”
“No.” The longer I stayed near him, the more disgusted I felt. This was Damian’s way of loving–a constant cycle of destruction and possession. I wanted no part of it. “It was all an act, Damian. I’m gone now. You can have Sarah all to yourself.”
He stared at me, his gaze lost and broken. A single tear, a thing I never thought possible, traced a path down his cheek. “I never
loved her.”
The System had told me Sorable
er to prison long ago. After my “death,” he had ruthlessly destroyed everyone who had ever hurt me. In an instant, he had become the vengeful god of this city.
The System had told me. Sarah’s crimes had been many, and Damian had sent
How ironic. The person who had hurt me the most was him.
