Chapter 39
I frowned. “While you what, Lysandra?”
She shook her head, her lips pressing into a tight line.
I stepped closer, my patience thinning. “You wanted to leave. I told you to leave. So why are you still here? Why did you come back? Why did you choose to stay? When you were leaving with your briefcase, why did you come back and choose to stay?”
Her eyes flashed. “Because you allowed me to stay. You wanted me here.”
The room went silent
She took a shaky breath, as if steadying herself before she spoke again, softer this time but just as sharp. “If you really wanted me gone, you wouldn’t have let me stay. But you did. You want me to stay with you? You had your men calling me back. I was going to
leave, yes, and I’m more than willing to do so. However, I’m not going to leave her to get everything that I fought to build. It’s bad
enough that you broke everything.”
I didn’t respond.
Because I didn’t have an answer for that
Lysandra laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. “See? You can’t even deny it.”
I exhaled slowly, trying to keep my temper in check. “You stayed because you chose to. That’s on you, not me. I would have
allowed you to leave. I was not stopping you ”
“Bullshit.” She stepped forward, her eyes burning with fury. “You knew I would. You wanted me to. And now, you’re acting like I’m the one clinging to something that isn’t there.”
I clenched my fists at my sides. This conversation was going nowhere and I knew that the more we argued, the more annoyed I
was going to be.
“You’re not the one clinging, Lysandra?” I arched a brow. “Because from where I’m standing, you’re the only one fighting for
something that’s already broken. Something that you know is not going to be fixed by just words. I made a mistake, I will admit that. But you are making this a bigger deal.”
Her face paled for half a second before she masked it with anger. “Don’t you dare act like I’m the problem here, Damon. You let this happen. You let her happen. You are trying to fight me over something that you made as a mistake and you want me to tolerate it. I’m not going to tolerate it. You are the one who brought her into our lives.”
My patience snapped. “Sienna being here changes nothing between us.”
“Doesn’t it?” Her voice wavered slightly, but she didn’t back down. “You want to pretend like she means nothing to you? Fine.
But don’t lie to me and say that this, us, is still the same.”
I didn’t answer.
Chapter 10
Because fuck, maybe she was right.
Maybe I had changed. Maybe everything had.
But I wasn’t about to admit that to her.
Not now.
Not ever.
+15 Bonus
Lysandra let out a sharp breath, taking a step back, her eyes scanning my face like she was searching for something, some kind of answer that I wasn’t going to give her.
“Tell me,” she whispered, her voice dangerously low, “if she wasn’t here, if she never came back, would you have fought for me? Or in your mind, I would have never left, would I? I was just the guaranteed woman that stayed around.”
The silence between us stretched, thick and suffocating.
I swallowed. “Lysandra…“.
“That’s all I needed to know,” she said, forcing out a bitter laugh. “I should’ve known better.”
She turned on her heel, storming toward the door.
“Lysandra…”
She paused, just for a second, her shoulders tense.
“You don’t have to choose her, Damon,” she said quietly. “But just know that you already lost me.”
Then she walked out, slamming the door behind her.
I stood there, fists clenched, jaw tight, my mind racing in circles.
This was not how things were supposed to go.
This was not the life I had planned.
But somehow, in the middle of it all, between Lysandra’s fury and Sienna’s silence, I was starting to realize that maybe, just maybe…
I had never been in control of it to begin with.
