CHAPTER 9
562 Words
Chapter 9 — Flashback: The Making of a Monster
Damian Blackwood wasn’t born dark.
He was made that way.
Long before Rosewood University bowed under his name, before the billion-dollar empire, before the cold eyes and cruel smirk…
there was a little boy.
A quiet boy.
A lonely boy.
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Age 8 — The Lesson of Power
The Blackwood mansion was big enough to swallow most people whole. But for Damian, it was a cage made of marble and expectations.
His father, Alexander Blackwood, didn’t believe in softness.
Not hugs.
Not praise.
Not childhood.
Only power.
Damian remembered the day he learned what that word truly meant.
He was playing with a model car — one of the rare toys he had — when he accidentally bumped into a table and knocked over his father’s glass.
The glass shattered.
He froze.
His father walked in, eyes like winter steel.
“Did you do this?”
Damian nodded, afraid.
Alexander crouched down — not to comfort him, but to grip his chin so tightly the boy’s eyes watered.
“Power means never showing weakness,” he said.
“And fear is a tool. You either use it… or it gets used on you.”
That night, Damian cried quietly in his room.
The next morning, he didn’t cry anymore.
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Age 13 — The First Betrayal
Damian learned what love wasn’t long before he knew what it could be.
There was a girl.
A sweet one.
Soft voice, soft smile. She told him he was kind. Told him he was different.
He believed her.
One day, he brought her flowers.
He’d been nervous — too nervous for a Blackwood — but he tried.
He wanted someone to choose him, not his name.
But when he got to school, he saw her laughing with her friends.
“He actually likes me,” she giggled.
“Imagine dating a Blackwood — think of the money!”
They never saw him standing there.
Something inside him snapped.
Not loudly.
Quietly.
Silently.
Like a door shutting forever.
From that day on, Damian promised himself:
“No one gets close. No one gets in. And no one gets the power to hurt me again.”
He became cold.
Sharp.
Untouchable.
Loved by everyone… but known by no one.
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Age 17 — The Night Everything Burned
His father pushed him harder. Expected more. Demanded perfection as if Damian were steel being forged against an anvil.
One night, after a brutal training session and a board meeting he was forced to attend, Damian snapped.
He confronted his father.
Told him he was tired.
Told him he was breaking.
Alexander looked at him with disgust.
“Only the weak break. And you,” he said, “are not allowed to be weak.”
That night, Damian realized his father didn’t want a son.
He wanted a weapon.
So Damian became one.
Cold.
Smart.
Ruthless.
Untouchable.
Nothing mattered.
No one mattered.
Until Rosewood University.
Until the quiet girl who looked at him not with greed, not with lust…
but with fear.
Amara.
The one girl he wants.
The one girl he can’t control.
The one girl he can’t stop thinking about.
And for the first time since he was thirteen…
Damian feels something again.
Something terrifying.
Something he doesn’t know how to handle.
Something that could save him…
or destroy him.
- Writer
