CHAPTER 4 : TWO DAYS
1203 Words
LIORA'S POV
Damien Sterling stood in the pouring rain like none of this chaos touched him.
Calm.
Untouchable.
The son of the monster who had destroyed my family.
Every memory of my father bleeding himself dry for this place flashed through my head.
And suddenly—
all I could see was red.
I charged at him.
His bodyguards moved instantly to intercept, but he raised a single hand.
They stopped instantly, like well-trained dogs.
I reached him in three furious strides, grabbed his tie, and yanked him down hard until his face was inches from mine.
“How f*****g dare you,” I snarled.
The entire construction site fell silent.
Bulldozers went quiet.
Workers froze mid-step.
The construction site held its breath.
Rain dripped down my face like cold tears, but the rage burning inside me was hotter than fire.
Two guards stepped forward to rip me away, but Damien gave them a sharp look.
They backed off.
He smiled.
slow.
dark.
Far too intimate.
“Ms. Vale,” he said, voice low and velvet-smooth,
“I suggest you take your hand off my tie… unless you want this entire building reduced to rubble before you can even turn around.”
My grip tightened for a defiant second before I slowly released him.
Damien straightened his tie calmly.
Like I hadn’t just attacked him.
Like this amused him.
Then he stepped closer.
The air between us thickened immediately.
Electric.
Rain clung to his sharp jawline and slid down the column of his throat.
His dark eyes dragged over my soaked body with blatant hunger, lingering on my heaving chest, the way my wet clothes clung to my skin.
“Though I must admit,” he murmured softly,
“you’re even more beautiful when you’re breaking.”
My stomach twisted violently.
I hated that my body reacted to him at all.
My heart burned with hatred…
and something far more dangerous low in my belly.
He reached out and brushed a wet strand of hair from my face.
His fingers lingering on my cheek.
The touch was deceptively gentle.
“I can help you, Liora,” he said quietly.
“I can give you back this land. This apartment. Everything.”
“I don’t make deals with devils,” I spat.
He chuckled, the sound rich and dangerous.
Then suddenly his arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me flush against him.
My breath caught violently.
Our bodies pressed together, heat cutting through the freezing rain.
His grip was calm. controlled.
Impossibly strong.
Like he already knew I couldn’t escape him.
“You’ll have to decide,” he whispered against my ear.
His hot breath sent sharp shivers racing down my spine.
“whether you’re willing to strike a deal with the devil…"
His hand spread wider against my lower back possessively.
"Or watch this house become my personal garage.”
His voice slid beneath my skin like poison.
I shoved hard against his chest, but he only held me tighter.
“Two days,”
he continued, lips brushing lightly against the shell of my ear.
“I’ll give you two days to decide what you want this place to become.”
He slowly pulled back just enough for our eyes to meet.
Rainwater dripped between us.
“Meet me at Makadonna,” he said calmly.
“Two nights from now.”
His fingers trailed slowly down my side before finally releasing me with a light push backward.
“If you decide to do the right thing.”
I stumbled slightly from the sudden loss of warmth.
“Don’t come if you don’t want to,” he added with a cruel, confident smile.
“I’ll still take the building.”
His eyes darkened.
“And eventually…”
His gaze lowered slowly to my lips.
“…I’ll take you too.”
The terrifying part wasn’t the threat.
It was the way my pulse betrayed me afterward.
He turned to leave, then paused beside the car.
“Oh, and Liora?”
He glanced back over his shoulder.
That wicked smile returned.
“Show up beautiful.”
Then he climbed into his sleek black BMW.
The engine purred softly before the car disappeared into the rain, leaving silence behind.
Only the distant bark of a stray dog broke the silence.
For a long moment, I just stood there shaking.
Then I slowly bent down and picked up my father’s muddied photograph.
My fingers trembled as I wiped dirt from his smiling face.
“I’m sorry…” I whispered brokenly.
I dragged my scattered belongings back inside the hollow apartment one by one until exhaustion finally crushed me onto the cold floor.
The silence inside felt wrong now.
Empty.
I clutched the picture tightly against my chest.
I wanted to cry.
I should have cried.
But the tears stayed locked inside, burning like acid.
Instead—
the memories came.
Nine-year-old me running barefoot through the living room while Dad chased me around the couch pretending to be a monster.
My laughter.
His laughter.
Warmth.
Safety.
“Daddy,” I had asked him once, “why do you always come here when you’re sad?”
He’d gone quiet afterward.
Too quiet.
Then he lowered his head slightly, eyes misty.
“Because this place still carries her memories, Liora.”
My mother.
The woman I never got the chance to meet.
“This is where she laughed,” he whispered softly.
“Where she danced. Sang to you while you were still inside her belly.”
His voice cracked slightly.
“This is the last piece of her I have left.”
Back then, I never understood why his eyes looked so broken when he said it.
Now I did.
“And it’s the last thing I’ll ever let go.”
My chest tightened painfully.
I stared at the blurry photograph in my hands, voice trembling.
“I’m sorry, Dad…”
Tears finally slipped down my cheeks.
“I failed you.”
Rain tapped softly against the broken windows while I cried quietly into the silence.
“The same people who put you in the grave…”
My voice cracked.
“…are trying to take this from us too.”
I whispered apologies to his picture until exhaustion finally dragged me under.
Sometime between heartbreak and rage, sleep consumed me completely.
And the past came with it.
"William… please…"
My father’s voice, broken and desperate.
"You know very well I didn’t do it..."
A sharp sound echoed somewhere in the darkness.
" I didn’t kill them… Please…"
Then screaming.
Glass breaking.
I woke up with a violent start, gasping, still clutching the broken frame.
Cold sweat mixed with the dried rain on my skin.
My breathing came fast and uneven while darkness swallowed the apartment around me.
For a long moment, I just stared at my father’s face in the cracked photograph.
Then slowly—
my grip tightened.
“Dad…”
My voice came out cold.
Final.
“I’ve decided.”
Something dark settled heavily inside my chest.
Something dangerous.
“I’d rather watch this building burn down with all of them inside it…”
My eyes slowly lifted toward the rain-covered window.
“…than let the devils win.”
- Writer
