Chapter 9: Shadows of the Past
334 Words
Elena sat by the window, her fingers gripping the curtain as she watched Damian’s car disappear through the gates. He was leaving again.
Her chest tightened. She knew exactly what he was doing—digging, searching, getting closer to the truth she had spent the past year trying to bury.
She had to stop him.
Before it was too late.
⸻
Damian’s fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he drove through the city. His mind was a storm of questions, each one leading to the same place—Elena’s past.
She was protecting someone.
No, not someone—him.
The thought unsettled him. Elena had left him at the altar, humiliated him in front of the world, and yet… she had done it for his sake?
He didn’t believe it. Not yet.
But something was wrong, and he was going to find out what.
A name flashed on his phone screen—Liam Hart.
He answered immediately.
“I found something,” Liam said without greeting. “But you’re not gonna like it.”
Damian’s grip tightened. “Tell me.”
There was a pause.
“Elena wasn’t just running from you,” Liam finally said. “She was running from someone else.”
⸻
Elena’s hands trembled as she reached for her phone.
She dialed quickly, her heart pounding.
The call rang once. Twice.
Then a voice answered.
“You shouldn’t have called me, Elena.”
A shiver ran down her spine. “You need to stop.”
A low chuckle. “Or what? You think Blackwood can protect you?”
Her fingers curled into a fist. “Leave him out of this.”
“Too late,” the voice murmured. “He’s already involved. And if he keeps digging… he won’t like what he finds.”
The line went dead.
Elena’s breath came in short, panicked bursts.
She had made a terrible mistake.
Damian was walking straight into danger—
And this time, she might not be able to save him.
- Writer
