CHAPTER 45
Damien’s POV
The hallway outside her apartment was quiet. Celeste stood a few steps from her door.
Her arms remained folded, her eyes sharp with something unreadable–wariness, maybe, or disappointment.
“Why are you really here, Damien?” She said flatly.
The doubt and exhaustion in her eyes broke my heart.
“I’m not here to make excuses.” I said, cutting Celeste off before she could say more things I wasn’t ready to hear.
It wasn’t as hard as I imagined. Because it was her–facing her–the guilt in my chest made the apology flow out.
I wasn’t hoping for anything in return; I just wanted her to stop looking at me with those doubtful eyes.
“You deserved more. I should’ve seen you… really seen you. I failed you, Celeste. Again and again. And I’m-“I faltered,
swallowing hard “I’m sorry. For all of it.”
Not just for what happened at the boutique, but also for how I’d treated her in the past, how I had failed and neglected her many times. Over and over again.
She tilted her head, brows arching with skepticism. “You came all this way to apologize for that?”
I nodded. “Not just for that. It’s also for everything my mother did today and before…it was inexcusable.”
Celeste’s lips pressed into a thin line. “So this is damage control. You’re the mediator now? Come to convince me not to press charges or demand compensation?”
I flinched. “No. I didn’t come to defend her. I came to say she was wrong. And to say I was too.”
She was silent for a long moment.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she said finally. Her was flat. Tired. “It’s just meaningless. All the apologies in the world
won’t undo what’s already been done.”
“I didn’t know,” I said, my voice low. “About how she treated you. Not really. I was blind to it.”
Celeste let out a small breath–a bitter sound that might’ve passed for a laugh if it hadn’t been so sharp. She looked at me like I was a stranger who’d just told her the sky was blue.
“Of course you didn’t know,” she said coolly. “Even if you had, it wouldn’t have changed a thing. You still wouldn’t have come to
my defense.”
Her words were like ice water.
“In your eyes,” she went on, “I was always the villain. The one who could lie and cheat. The one capable of such things and
+20 Bonus
perhaps even more.” Her lips twisted into a cold, cruel smile, “Even without real proof, you were ready to believe the worst about
me.!!
My throat tightened.
Celeste stared at me, unmoved. “I won’t accept your apology. If I forgive you now… then what was all that suffering for?”
Damn. I felt that cutting deep within me.
She wasn’t finished, though. “It would mean every tear, every scar, was pointless–and I can’t live with that.”
She turned, pulling her keys from her coat pocket. “I have things to do. So if that’s all…”
I didn’t want it to end like this. I didn’t want her to walk away again, not with that look in her eyes like I was nothing but a closed
chapter.
“I’m not done,” I said, stepping forward, feeling like this was my last chance. “Celeste, please… just talk to me. I need to
understand-”
She spun around, her voice sharp and hoarse from exhaustion. “Understand what, Damien? That I was never who you thought I was? That I wasn’t the villain you painted in your head?”
My throat tightened. “I didn’t know what to believe-”
“No,” she snapped. “You chose not to believe me. You decided I was some manipulative woman who couldn’t be trusted. An evil
witch, remember?”
Her words stung because they were true.
“You can’t suddenly act like you care just because you’ve uncovered the truth. The truth was always there–you just never looked
hard enough.”
She turned away, her shoulders stiff. “I’m tired, Damien. Tired of fighting for a place I never should’ve had to beg for.”
“Don’t be like that, Celeste….I just…“I took a shaky breath, eyes fixed on her rigid back.
“I told you back at the hospital–stop putting on that guilty face,” she snapped, her eyes blazing.
“I’ll never forget how you betrayed me… how you humiliated me in front of everyone on our anniversary.” Her voice wavered, but her fury was steady. “Do you really feel guilty for that, Damien?”
Her accusation hit me like a punch to the chest, leaving my heart clenched tight.
But it felt like this wasn’t just about the humiliation my mother had put her through.
Why did she suddenly bring up our wedding anniversary–the one day I least wanted to remember?
What did she mean by that? Could it be… there was something about that cheating video, something I never knew?
