CHAPTER TWO: I Don’t Recognize You Anymore
611 Words
Do you even see me anymore?”
Audrey’s voice trembled, barely a whisper.
“Do you even see me anymore?”
Damien didn’t answer right away.
He stood, slow and deliberate, like a storm gathering itself. The space between them shrank in seconds.
“You think I don’t see?” he said coldly. “You leave early. Come home late. Always got that man’s name on your lips. You think I’m a fool?”
Audrey backed up a step, eyes wide. “Damien… it’s just work. That’s all it is.”
“I’m not stupid, Audrey.”
“I never said you were.”
He moved closer, too close. She could smell the faint mint on his breath, see the tension in his jaw. The shadows in his eyes weren’t just anger. They were old. Familiar. Wounded.
“Maybe you want him,” he muttered, voice low. “Maybe you like the attention.”
Her heart twisted.
“No,” she whispered. “I want you to pay attention. I want my husband back.”
His hand snapped out,not a strike, but a grip.
Hard. Controlling.
Fingers wrapped tight around her arm.
Audrey froze.
“Damien,” she breathed, voice cracking. “You’re hurting me.”
He didn’t move,not at first. Just stared down at her with fire and confusion and something unspoken.
Then realization hit him.
He let go fast. As if her skin burned.
“Audrey”
She stumbled back a step, hugging her arm to her chest, heart racing like a trapped bird.
Her voice shook.
“I don’t recognize you anymore.”
Silence.
Damien said nothing,didn’t move, didn’t reach for her. Just stood there, the weight of his own actions crashing down on him.
She picked up her purse with shaking hands, turned away, and left, quietly, with all the dignity she had left.
And for the first time in a long time, Damien didn’t try to stop her.
Flash back to Back To When He Loved Her Out Loud
Two years ago…
The rooftop glowed under fairy lights, soft jazz playing in the background. Audrey’s laugh floated through the air like music light, carefree, his favorite sound in the world.
Damien stood a few steps away, watching her as she twirled in her satin evening dress, the wind playing with her curls. She didn’t know he was staring, didn’t know he was falling harder than he ever expected to.
“You keep looking at me like that,” she teased, catching his gaze, “you’re going to make me think you’re in love with me.”
He stepped forward, eyes warm, voice low.
“I am.”
She blinked, lips parting.
“I love you, Audrey,” he said simply. “And I don’t care if that scares me.”
She didn’t speak, not right away. She just stared up at him, dark eyes glassy with emotion, and whispered,
“Don’t ever stop saying it like that.”
He took her hand, pulled her close. “I won’t. Even when you drive me crazy, even when I forget how to show it… I’ll always love you.”
She leaned her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
And for the first time in a long time he let her hear his.
Fade back to present…
Audrey sat alone in her car, parked two blocks from the house she no longer wanted to return to. Rain tapped gently on the windshield. That memory, the one she swore she’d hold onto forever now felt like a lie someone else had lived.
He has always been possessive, over protective but always shows me how much he loves me.
- Writer
