Chapter 125 Stay
JASMINE
But then “Jasmine!”
The sound pierced through the quiet. It was faint, distant. Like it was coming from underwater, my heart stuttered. Damien, I knew that voice. Even now, even here somehow.
I would know it anywhere. “Stay with me—please—stay with me!” It came again, louder this time—or maybe closer, or maybe I was the one drifting. I tried to move, tried to turn toward it but my body didn’t respond. It was like I was trapped inside myself, aware… but unable to reach anything beyond the stillness.
“Damien…” I tried to say but no sound came out, not even a whisper..Panic flickered faintly in my chest. I tried again, nothing. “I’m right here—I’ve got you—just stay with me—!”
His voice was breaking, I could hear it, feel it. It tugged at something deep inside me, something that refused to let go no matter how peaceful this place felt.
No matter how tempting it was to just… drift.
I didn’t want him to sound like that, I didn’t want him to hurt. “I’m here…” I tried again, pushing against the invisible weight holding me down. “I’m right here…”
But it was useless. My voice wouldn’t reach him, my body wouldn’t move. It was like there was a wall between us. Thin enough that I could hear him but thick enough that I couldn’t get back.
A soft warmth brushed against my cheek. It felt familiar, so painfully familiar. My heart clenched, his touch. Even now… I could feel it like a memory or a dream. “Don’t cry…” I wanted to tell him.
I could feel it—his tears, the way they fell, the way his hands trembled when he held me.
It hurt, not physically. Something deeper than that. The kind of pain that didn’t bleed but still tore you apart. "I’m okay…” I tried to say..“I’m okay now…”.But the words stayed trapped inside me..
“Please… don’t do this… stay with me…”
His voice cracked and something inside me cracked with it. No….No, I didn’t want to leave him like this..I didn’t want his last memory of me to be this...broken, bleeding and fading away in his arms.
“I’m here…” I tried again, pushing harder this time, fighting against the pull dragging me deeper into the quiet. “Damien, I’m here… please…”
But the silence swallowed my voice whole, like it had swallowed everything else. The warmth around me deepened, it was gentler now, softer, more insistent like it was calling me, telling me to rest, to stop fighting, to let go.
It was so tempting, to just close my eyes, to just… sink into it. No more pain, no more fear, no more running. Just peace, just quiet, just… rest.
But his voice kept breaking through like a lifeline.
Like something refusing to let me drift too far.
“I love you…”
The words echoed.
Clear and raw and filled with something so powerful it shook me to my core. My breath hitched. Even here…even now…he was still holding on, still fighting for me.
“I love you too…” I whispered, or at least… I tried to. I don’t know if the words left me, i don’t know if he heard them, but I meant them. With everything I had left.
My chest rose slowly, then fell slower this time, heavier. Like each breath was the last thread keeping me tethered. The darkness around me deepened... final.
I could still hear him.
I was the one drifting away from him.
“Please… come back…”
His voice cracked into something desperate.
Something broken, something that made my heart ache even as it slowed. I wanted to reach for him.
To hold him, to tell him it would be okay. That he would be okay, but I couldn’t.
The last thing I felt…was warmth, the ghost of his touch, the echo of his voice, the love that wrapped around me even as everything else slipped away. And as my heart gave one final, quiet beat…a single word formed on my lips.
Soft.
Fragile and barely there. “…Mama…”
DAMIEN
My chest tightened violently like something had wrapped around my lungs and was squeezing harder, tighter until I couldn’t pull in air. “No…” I whispered, my hands trembling as they cupped her face. “No, you’re not… you’re not gone… you can’t be—”
My thumb brushed against her cheek, cold, not warm like before, not soft and alive and real.
Just cold. A sharp, choking sound tore out of my throat.“HELP!”
The word ripped through me, raw and jagged, echoing across the open space like a gunshot.
“HELP ME!” I roared, my voice cracking as I clutched her closer to my chest. “SOMEBODY HELP—!”
My heart pounded violently against my ribs, erratic, frantic, like it was trying to compensate for the one that had just stopped beating in my arms. “Thomas!” I screamed, my head snapping up wildly as my vision blurred with tears. “THOMAS!”
Footsteps came, fast, heavy, rushing. Then he was there..Uncle Thomas burst into the clearing, his men right behind him, their weapons still drawn, breaths uneven from the chaos they had just fought through.
But the moment his eyes landed on us, he stopped dead in his tracks..The world seemed to still around him, his chest rose once, twice, then froze.
Because he saw it, he saw everything, the blood, the dagger wound. The way Jasmine’s body hung limply in my arms, the way I held onto her like if I loosened my grip even for a second she would disappear completely.
“No…” he breathed, the word barely audible, like it had been dragged out of him against his will.
I shook my head violently. “No, no—don’t just stand there!” I snapped, my voice breaking as I shifted her in my arms, trying to keep pressure on the wound that wouldn’t stop bleeding—even though somewhere deep down, I knew it already had.
“Call the ambulance!” I barked, my voice hoarse, desperate. “Do something—do something, damn it!”
One of the men fumbled immediately, pulling out his phone with shaking hands. “Yes, sir..yes, calling now" he stammered, stepping aside, already speaking rapidly into the receiver, his voice tight with urgency.
But I didn’t hear him, i didn’t hear anything, not really. All I could hear was the silence where her heartbeat should have been. “Jasmine…” I whispered, pulling her closer, my forehead pressing against hers. “Tesoro, please… please just—just breathe… just once… just one more time…”
Nothing. My hands shook as I adjusted her in my arms, cradling her like she was something fragile, something precious because she was “Stay with me…” I begged, my voice crumbling. “You said you weren’t going anywhere… you promised… you promised me…”