Chapter 232 Sound of the broken

Chapter 232 Sound of the broken

THIRD PERSON’S POV.

It was almost midnight before the search came to an abrupt halt.

One of the firefighters suddenly raised his hand. “Hold on!”

His voice cut through the chaos, immediately drawing the attention of everyone nearby.

“I think we’ve found something.”

Conversations died. The sound of machinery slowed.

Even the firefighters digging through the debris paused for a brief second before gathering around the spot.

Damian’s heart lurched violently inside his chest.

This was it.

He didn’t know why, but something inside him whispered that this time… this time it was Serena.

Without thinking, he pushed past the police officers standing in front of him and stumbled toward the pile of rubble.

Jake immediately followed. “Sir…”

But Damian wasn’t listening. He couldn’t.

His entire world was hanging in the hands of the small group of firefighters carefully lifting something from beneath the collapsed concrete.

Please let her be alive. Please let her be trapped. Please let her be unconscious. He prayed silently.

Anything was better than pulling her lifeless body.

One of the firefighters carefully laid what they had recovered onto a nearby examination table.

Damian couldn’t see it clearly from where he stood.

Too many people were blocking his view but he shoved past them.

His breathing became shallow the closer he got to the table. His heartbeat pounded louder and louder.

Every step felt impossibly heavy.

Then he saw it.

A severed arm burned beyond recognition.

Damian froze and the world around him blurred.

“No.” He shook his head.

It couldn’t be hers. There were dozens of people inside the warehouse.

Dominic’s men, even his own men. The arm could belong to anyone. Even Cassandra.

His mind clung desperately to that thought.

“It isn’t Serena,” he whispered to Jake the moment the guard came to stand beside him.

“It can’t be.” He repeated it again almost like a prayer. “It can’t be her.”

Nearby, one of the firefighters slowly turned the arm over in his gloved hands.“There isn’t much left,” he murmured quietly.

Another rescuer stepped closer. “Can we identify who it belongs to?”

The firefighter studied it for a long moment before shaking his head. “No.”

He sighed heavily. “It’s been burned too badly.”

He carefully examined the remains again. “I doubt we’ll be able to retrieve usable DNA from this.”

Jake looked toward Damian.

His heart broke at the expression on his boss’s face.

Damian wasn’t crying.He wasn’t speaking. He simply stood there, staring at the table refusing to blink as though blinking would somehow make it real.

Jake silently prayed they would find something—anything—that proved the arm belonged to someone else.

The firefighter frowned.

“Wait, I think there’s something else here.”

Using a small tool, he gently brushed away the ash fused to what little remained of the hand.

And a faint glimmer caught beneath the work lights.

The firefighter paused as he brushed away another layer until finally a diamond reflected against the light.

Jake’s stomach dropped.

The firefighter slowly slipped the ring free from the charred remains before holding it up for everyone to see.

For a brief second no one spoke.

Damian’s eyes locked onto it instantly. His face drained of every last trace of color.

His breathing stopped.

“Not that ring.” He tried to close his eyes, “not that one.” He mumbled again.

He knew every detail of that ring, every cut, every curve and every tiny imperfection.

Because he had spent weeks searching for it in all the best jewelry stores in the country.

He remembered standing nervously inside the one store, wondering whether Serena would like it.

He remembered sliding it onto her finger.

Remembered the way she’d looked at him with tears in her eyes before throwing her arms around his neck.

He remembered promising her forever.

Promising that no matter what happened, he’d always protect her.

And he’d failed. He had failed her.

The firefighter looked around.

“Does anyone recognize this ring?”

Damian didn’t remember moving.

One second he was standing several feet away. The next, he had reached the table. His shaking hands hovered over the ring.

He couldn’t bring himself to touch it.

Not yet.

Because the moment he did, everything would become real.

Jake slowly stepped beside him. His own eyes filled with tears. “Sir…” he nudged Damian gently.

And Damian finally reached forward. His fingers trembled uncontrollably as he took the ring from the firefighter.

It was warm, covered in soot.

But it was unmistakably Serena’s.

The engagement ring he had placed on her finger exactly one year ago.

The one she had refused to take off. Even after every argument and misunderstanding had now been pulled from her fingers.

Damian’s knees buckled but Jake caught him before he hit the ground.

For several long seconds, Damian simply stared at the ring resting in the palm of his hand.

His thumb brushing over the diamond. He could almost see Serena smiling at him. Almost feel her fingers intertwined with his.

His chest tightened so violently it became impossible to breathe.

He shook his head over and over. “This isn’t happening.”

His words dissolved into broken whispers. “I was supposed to save you…”

He took in a strained breath. “I promised you…”

His shoulders began to shake. “I promised…”

The ring slipped against his trembling fingers as tears finally spilled down his face.

Then it happened. The sound that tore from Damian’s chest wasn’t a cry, it wasn’t a scream. It was something far more devastating.

The sound of a man whose entire world had just been ripped away.

It was raw, unfiltered, almost animalistic. It was the kind of grief that came from losing not just the woman he loved but every future he had ever imagined with her.

It echoed across the smoking ruins, silencing everyone within earshot.

Firefighters lowered their heads. Police officers looked away.

Even the paramedics froze where they stood.

No one knew what to say.

Because there were no words powerful enough to reach a man who believed he had just watched the love of his life die.

Jake stood beside him with tears burning in his own eyes, his fists clenched so tightly they ached.

For the first time since he had met Damian Crowne, he watched the strongest man he knew completely fall apart.

And there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to put him back together again.