The Proposal
1159 Words
Damien's name didn’t leave my lips, but it tore through my bloodstream all the same.
He stood frozen in the doorway like the shock had rooted him to the floor. His eyes that once softened only for me were wide with something I couldn’t name. Panic? Guilt? Fear?
Or something worse… something I didn’t have the strength to face.
My throat closed, breath catching painfully against my ribs. I wasn’t ready to see him. Not like this, laying in this hospital bed he helped put me in.
The heartbeat monitor betrayed me, speeding so fast it sounded like it was announcing my humiliation.
Alexander didn’t turn around.
He didn’t need to.
He stood beside my bed as if he’d been waiting for this exact moment, shoulders broad, posture perfectly controlled, like Damien’s sudden entrance was nothing but a mild inconvenience.
Damien’s gaze snapped to him.
“You,” Damien hissed. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Alexander finally looked over his shoulder, unbothered, his voice calm enough to be a provocation. “Checking on someone who matters.”
My pulse hammered harder.
Damien’s jaw tightened so sharply I heard his teeth click. He took one step into the room, then another, until he was close enough for me to smell the faint trace of his cologne. The scent that once lived on my pillows, on my skin, and in my memories.
Now it suffocated me.
“Arielle…” His voice cracked around my name, the sound low and raw. “Why didn’t anyone tell me you were hurt?”
I stared at him without speaking. Because if I opened my mouth, I might scream, or sob, or confess that I nearly died because of him.
“I’m talking to you,” he whispered, stepping closer.
Alexander stepped in front of him like a wall.
“You need to leave,” Alexander said sharply.
Damien’s eyes flashed. “She’s not yours.”
“And she’s certainly not yours anymore,”
Alexander replied, voice very loud.
My breath stilled.
I watched the two of them father and son standing inches from each other, the air between them charged with something dangerous enough to ignite.
Damien’s gaze darted back to me. “Arielle, please. Just tell me you’re okay.”
I closed my eyes, swallowing the pain clawing up my throat. Hearing his voice still hurt like a bone splintering under skin.
When I didn’t answer, he stepped even closer—too close, close enough that the heat of him brushed my skin.
“Talk to me,” Damien pleaded.
Alexander’s hand landed on the bed rail beside me, a clear, silent claim.
“Not another step,” Alexander warned.
Damien glared at him, breath shaking with barely contained rage.
“This isn’t your place,” Damien spat. “She’s mine.”
That word exploded inside me.
Mine?
The same man who broke me so viciously that I ended up unconscious in a twisted heap of metal dared to say I belonged to him.
My fingers curled into the sheets.
“Get out,” I whispered.
Damien blinked, stunned. “Arielle”
“Get. Out.”
Each word scraped up my throat like shattered glass.
Color drained from Damien’s face. Not anger. Not disbelief. Something like regrets for hurting me.
Let him feel a fraction of what he carved into me.
But instead of leaving, he stepped closer, voice barely a breath. “Arielle, what happened… I didn’t mean to”
“Enough,” Alexander snapped.
But Damien didn’t hear him. His eyes were locked on me, frantic and broken in a way I had never seen.
“I need to explain,” he whispered. “I didn’t want to break you. I didn’t want any of this. I thought”
“What you thought,” Alexander cut in, “is irrelevant. She doesn’t want you here.”
Damien didn’t look away from me. “Tell me that. Tell me you don’t want me.”
I wanted to. God, I wanted to say it loud.
But heartbreak is a cruel thing, it makes even your truth tremble.
Silence filled the room like thick smoke.
Behind that silence, I felt Alexander watching me and measuring me. Reading every flicker of weakness.
Damien took my hand.
I didn’t stop him.
My throat tightened. My chest ached. My body betrayed me.
He exhaled shakily, relief flooding his features. “Arielle…”
Alexander moved faster than I thought possible.
His hand closed around Damien’s wrist, ripping it away from mine with force that made Damien stumble.
“She said get out,” Alexander said, voice dropping to a deadly low. “So leave. Before I make you.”
Damien’s face twisted. “You don’t get to talk to me like”
“I’m not talking,” Alexander said. “I’m deciding.”
The tension cracked like thunder.
I realized something then—something that chilled my blood.
These two men weren’t just father and son.
They were predators circling the same wound which is me.
Damien stepped back, breathing hard, looking between us like he was seeing something he didn’t understand or couldn’t understand.
“What is this?” he demanded. “Why are you here? Why is he here?” His eyes burned into mine. “Arielle… What the hell is going on?”
I opened my mouth.
But before I could speak, Alexander answered for me.
“She isn’t your concern anymore,” Alexander said, his voice cutting through the room like a blade.
“And soon… she won’t be your equal, either.”
Damien’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”
Alexander looked at me.
Not at Damien.
And when he spoke, it wasn’t a threat.
It was a declaration.
“It means,” he said slowly, “she won’t be Arielle Cruz much longer.”
My heart stopped.
Damien’s eyes widened, breath catching fear, confusion, and disbelief crashing together in one violent flash.
“What?” he whispered.
Alexander’s gaze never left mine.
“Tell him,” he said quietly. “Or I will.”
The room tilted. My pulse thundered. My lips trembled.
Damien took a step toward me, voice breaking.
“Tell me what…?”
I inhaled shakily and the door slammed open again.
A nurse rushed in, wide-eyed. “We need everyone out now! Her heart rate is spiking dangerously!”
I gasped as pain shot through my chest, the machines shrieking as my vitals spiked off the charts. Panic swarmed the room, hands, voices, urgency.
Alexander leaned in close, his whisper to my ear.
“Decide carefully, Arielle,” he murmured. “Because after today… Your life stops belonging to your past.”
Damien tried to push forward.
“Arielle!” He shouted in an angry voice
Security dragged him back.
The machines screamed louder.
And the last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me again.
Both Blackwood men are fighting to reach me.
- Writer
