The Grave Of Romance

Chapter 5: The Room Where Truth Was Rewritten

I found myself in a room that did not seem to belong to the world. The Room Where Truth Was Rewritten was a place without windows without clocks and without any sound from outside.

It was a room that stood still in time. I woke up slowly feeling like my body was being pulled back from a far away place. My head felt very heavy and my thoughts were all over the place like pieces of a broken mirror that I could not put back together to see a clear picture. The air in the room was clean. It was too still too controlled. The walls were pale and smooth.

I did not recognize them. There was no sign of the life I remembered, no noise from the city, no voices of people celebrating and no Damian. The only thing I could feel was the silence. It pressed against my skin like something that was alive.

I tried to move. My body felt very weak like I had been asleep for a very long time. My fingers moved first then my arms and when I tried to sit up I heard a soft sound coming from the side of the room.

It was the sound of a door opening and footsteps entering the room carefully, not in a rush, not afraid. I turned my head slowly. That was when I saw my family, The Voss Family. Victor Voss stood at the front, calm and composed, filling the room with his presence without any effort. Behind him was Elara, silent as always, her face not showing any emotion.. Beside them stood Lucas watching me with a seriousness that felt heavier than any words.

For a moment I could not say anything. My mind was trying to connect my memories with what was happening in front of me. The last thing I remembered was the engagement hall, the lights flashing my body falling.

Damian's face above me. Then nothing. "You are safe now " Victor said calmly like nothing unusual had happened. His voice was steady, controlled and almost comforting if I did not know him. I tried to sit up feeling confused inside me. "What happened to me?" I asked, my voice weak and not familiar to my ears.

Elara stepped forward a little, her eyes soft but distant. "You were taken, " she said gently. "You were poisoned during the event." The word poisoned made my chest feel tight. My breath slowed down. I tried to remember. Everything felt blurred and incomplete.

"Who did it?" I immediately asked if my voice was sharper now. There was a silence in the room, a controlled silence. Victor looked at Lucas before answering. "Damian Hale " he said. The name hit me like something cold.

For a moment I could not react. My mind did not want to accept it. My heart did not want to believe it. "No, " I said quickly, shaking my head. "That is not possible." Lucas stepped closer, his face serious, almost firm. "We saw everything, " he said.

"We reviewed what happened that night. He was the one near you before you collapsed." I tried to remember. Images came to my mind in fragments. The glass, the taste, the fall Damian approaching me, his face, his eyes.. My memory felt unstable like something had been touched, altered, made unclear.

"He did not panic, " I whispered, remembering that part clearly. My voice was trembling. Victor nodded slightly. "That is because he was not surprised, " he replied. "He had already done it." My chest felt tight again. I pressed my hand against it trying to steady my breathing. "No, " I said again. This time my voice was weaker.

Elara moved closer. Placed a hand gently on my shoulder. Her touch was soft. There was something firm underneath it, something guiding. "Aria " she said quietly using my name in a way that felt heavier than usual. "You have to understand what he did to you."

I looked at her searching her face for something doubtful.. I found none, only calm conviction. Victor walked closer standing at the edge of my bed. His shadow fell over me slightly. "He took your company, " he said. "He took your trust. Then he took your life."

I shook my head again feeling more desperate now. "We were..." I stopped and the word felt stuck. I could not finish it. Lucas interrupted softly. "You were used, " he said. "Everything you built made you a target. He was the one who removed you."

My mind felt like it was splitting into two directions. One part of me did not want to believe what they were saying. The other part of me was trying to find something other than their words, something real.. Every time I reached for that memory it slipped away like water through my fingers. Victor turned slightly, pacing a step as he continued. "We did not let you die, " he said. "We brought you here, we saved what was left of you before it was too late." I looked around the room again noticing details I had not seen before.

The structure, the isolation, the lack of any connection. "Where am I?" I asked slowly.

Elara hesitated for a moment before answering. "Somewhere safe " she said. "Away from him, away from Damian." The words echoed in my mind Damian, his face appeared again in fragments, his voice, his touch, the way he looked at me.

My heart felt tight painfully as if rejecting the thought itself. "You were not supposed to survive that drink, " Victor continued. "But we prepared for it, we controlled the dose, it was never meant to kill you." I looked at him sharply. "Then what was it meant to do?" My voice was unsteady now.

Lucas answered this time. "To break the connection, " he said. "To remove him from your mind to reset what had been influenced." I suddenly felt cold not from the room. From the realization slowly forming inside me. "Influenced?" I repeated. Victor nodded. "He was changing your path, " he said. "You were choosing him over everything over your family over your purpose." My breathing grew uneven. "That was my choice, " I said quietly.

Elara shook her head slightly. "It was not a choice, " she replied. "He pulled you in. Once that happened you stopped seeing clearly." I lowered my gaze struggling to hold onto myself.

My thoughts felt divided, unstable. I tried to remember Damian but the more I reached for him the more distant he became, like a fading image behind fog. Victor stepped again, his voice lowering slightly. "He stood over you that night, " he said. ". He did nothing."

My fingers curled slightly at the memory of his face, that still expression, that gaze. I had seen it and I had felt it. I could not understand it. "You are alive because we removed you from him, " Lucas added. ". Because we made sure you would forget enough to heal." Forget enough the phrase lingered, not memory loss, not complete erasure, just enough. I touched my head slowly as if trying to feel the missing pieces. "Why am I here?" I asked quietly.

Victor looked at me for a moment before answering. "Because you still belong to your family, The Voss Family, " he said. ". Because your story is not finished yet." I looked up at him slowly, something inside me tightening again. "What story?" I asked. Elara stepped back slightly exchanging a glance with Victor.

Lucas remained silent now watching me closely. Victor's expression did not change. There was something deeper in his eyes now, something final. "The stage, " he said. "Where you become who you were always meant to be."

I felt something shift, in the room the air seemed heavier and the silence deeper. My instincts screamed at me to question more, to resist, to find certainty.. Every thought I tried to form broke apart before becoming clear.

Victor turned slightly toward the door. "You will understand everything soon, " he said calmly. Elara gave me one look, almost soft, almost sad before following him. Lucas lingered for a moment longer, his eyes met mine. There was something I could not read. Then he. I walked out as well.

The door began to close and just before it shut completely Victor's voice came again from the hallway. ". Aria " he said. "Do not try to remember much too quickly." The door closed, the lock clicked and in the silence that followed I realized something I could not explain if Damian truly killed me.