Chapter Nine

Valerie pov

The phone rang continuously, breaking the silence in the room. I looked at Devon, who sat stiffly on the couch, staring out the window, lost in thought.

“Devon,” I said firmly, my concern clear. “Your phone won’t stop ringing. What’s going on?”

He didn’t respond. His fingers twitched, but he remained still, his face cold and unreadable. I took a deep breath, reminding myself to stay calm.

I glanced at his phone screen, filled with missed calls from Leila. I recognized the name instantly, tightening something inside me.

“Devon, please talk to me,” I insisted, keeping my voice steady. “I’m here. Don’t shut me out.”

He blinked but didn’t engage. His eyes momentarily flickered with anger before returning to indifference.

“Leave it alone, Valerie,” he said coldly.

His tone stung. This wasn’t the man I knew, the one who had promised me everything. It felt like he was slipping away, replaced by someone distant and troubled.

“You promised you would love me,” I countered, steady despite my hurt. “I feel like a ghost in your life. I try to reach you, but you keep pushing me away.”

For a moment, I thought he might understand when our eyes met. But he leaned forward, pressing his hands to his forehead, overwhelmed by his hidden struggles.

“You don’t get it, Valerie,” he said, frustration heavy in his voice. “It’s not that simple. I can’t just forget her because you’re here. You’re not a replacement for what I lost.”

I recoiled, his words hitting me like a slap. His gaze met mine again, but there was no softness, no warmth—just an Alpha’s cold detachment that made me feel more like an inconvenience than the person I was trying to be for him.

“Don’t say that,” I replied, my voice low but resolute. “I’m not trying to replace her. But you promised. You assured me you’d be here, that you’d choose me.”

A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he abruptly stood, pacing the room with restless energy, the tension palpable. His hand ran through his hair, jaw clenching and unclenching as if he were battling the storm brewing inside him. I could see it, the anger simmering beneath the surface, ready to erupt.

“You don’t understand,” he snapped back. “You think I don’t remember my promises? I do. But every time I look at you, I see her. I hear her. I feel her... and I can’t just turn that off.”

His voice dropped, gravelly and raw, as the frustration poured out of him—a deluge of emotions he could no longer contain.

I stood my ground, legs steady as I took a determined step toward him, my emotions surging beneath the surface. “You’re hurting me, Devon. I need you—this chaotic mess isn’t enough. I need you to see me. See us.”

He halted his pacing, turning to face me with an intensity that made my heart race. His eyes, once tender when they looked at me, were now wild and tumultuous, like a beast caught in a cage of his own making.

“You think I don’t want to?” His voice was raw and desperate. “You believe I don’t want to be here with you, to forget about her? But she’s Leila. She’s not someone I can just erase. Not just like that. She was my mate.”

I stood firm, the weight of his words hitting me like ice water but not breaking me. Leila. The mate. The one he might never forget, no matter how deeply I wished he would.

The thought of their past gnawed at me, but I wouldn’t let it show. Instead, I steadied my voice, even as emotion threatened to overwhelm me. “But you promised me,” I insisted, pressing the importance of that promise. “You promised to be here with me, to choose me.”

He stepped closer, his broad frame looming over mine, breath ragged and eyes dark with the turmoil he was desperate to bury. “I want to, Valerie. But I’m not the man you think I am anymore. I can’t just turn this off. I’m broken.”

“Then let me help you,” I pleaded firmly, my voice strong despite the tremor. I reached out, touching his arm lightly. “You don’t have to do this alone. Let me in.”

For a moment, his body stiffened at my touch, caught off guard, unsure of how to respond. The silence loomed between us, thick and suffocating. But then, finally, his shoulders slumped, and he let out a ragged sigh, his head hanging low.

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered, almost to himself. I caught it, and it shattered the last of the walls I had tried to maintain.

“Don’t say that,” I responded resolutely, stepping closer, my hand finding his, fingers curling around his. “You deserve love, too. But you must let me in. You have to let go of the past, or it’s going to destroy everything we could be.”

He looked down at our joined hands, then back at my face, and for the first time in ages, I saw something in his eyes—something soft and vulnerable. But it was fleeting, gone almost instantly. The man I loved was still trapped inside the walls he’d constructed.

“I can’t just let her go,” he murmured, his voice barely audible, eyes distant once more. “Not when I still hear her voice in my head, when I still feel her everywhere.”

I wanted to scream, to make him understand that I wasn’t asking him to forget Leila. I was asking him to see me, to choose me, to fight for us and what we could have.

“I’m not asking you to forget her,” I whispered, tears brimming but my voice steady. “I’m asking you to remember me.”

For the first time in a long while, Devon stayed rooted. He didn’t pull away, and he didn’t get angry. He simply stood there, enveloped in the silence. In that brief moment, I dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, he was finally starting to hear me.