Chapter 117
Damon's POV
We pulled into the makeshift parking area near the track. The sound of revving engines cut through the air, mixed with shouts and the smell of burning rubber.
"Elena," I tried again.
"I'm staying in the car." She didn't look at me. "I need to sleep. You go ahead."
"You can't just sit here—"
"Watch me."
I got out, slamming the door harder than necessary. Through the window, I saw her pull the coat tighter around herself, turning away from me completely.
Billy's voice cut through my thoughts. "Damon! About time!" He jogged over. "Ready to see my new modifications? I've got the turbo running so smooth—" He stopped, noticing my car. "You bring your fiancée?"
"Sleeping," I said shortly. "Not feeling well."
Billy's expression shifted to something uncomfortably close to pity. "Man, remember before? She used to come to all your races. Even though she was terrified the whole time, her eyes never left you. Worried you'd get hurt."
I did remember. She'd never asked to come, but somehow she was always there, waiting at the finish line with that worried crease between her eyebrows.
"She doesn't do that anymore," I said, hearing the edge in my own voice.
"No." Billy glanced at the car again. "She doesn't, does she? Wonder why that changed."
A familiar scent of pheromones drew my gaze to the distance. Scarlett.
"Excuse me for a moment," I told Billy. "Someone's waiting."
He raised an eyebrow and looked but didn't comment, just clapped me on the shoulder.
---
Scarlett's POV
I leaned against my motorcycle, watching the entrance, fingers drumming impatiently against my thigh.
When Damon finally appeared, I didn't move to greet him.
"You're late," he said as he reached me.
"I told you, I had to—" He stopped, seeming to think better of whatever excuse he'd planned. "I'm here now."
No kiss. No embrace. We stood five feet apart like strangers negotiating a business deal. When had that started?
"We need to talk," I said, watching his face carefully.
"Since you obviously can't get out of this engagement—"
"You know that." His voice was sharp.
"Do I?" I pushed off the beam, taking a step closer. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks pretty damn real. Official engagement announcement, families involved, probably a big ceremony—"
"That's all surface. Underneath, nothing changes between us."
I wanted to believe him. But I'd seen the way he'd been pulling away lately, conversations with me becoming shorter, more careful. The way he couldn't quite meet my eyes when he talked about Elena.
"Run away with me," I said suddenly. "Right now. Today. No more guards watching you, no more family pressure. We could just... go."
For a moment—just a heartbeat—I thought I saw something in his face.
Then it closed off. "My grandfather's still in the hospital."
"So that's it? You're really going to marry her?"
"It's not a real marriage—"
"Every marriage is real once you say the vows, Damon!" My voice cracked on his name. "Once you stand up in front of everyone and claim her as your Luna, how exactly does that end? You think your family will just let you divorce her?"
He ran a hand through his hair, frustration radiating from every line of his body. "You're not making this easier—"
"I'm not trying to make it easy!" The words burst out of me. "I'm trying to make you see reality! If you marry her, I become what? Your secret? The woman you visit when you need a break from your perfect, proper wife?"
The way he flinched told me I'd hit close to home.
"If it wasn't for your father," he said, voice low and dangerous. "If you had a different background, this wouldn't be happening. We'd be together openly, properly—"
"Are you seriously blaming me right now?" I felt like he'd slapped me. "He lost everything, like his failure is somehow my fault?"
"That's not what I meant—"
"Then what did you mean, Damon?" I stepped closer, close enough to see the war in his eyes. "Because it sounded a lot like you're saying I'm not good enough because I don't come from the right family."
Silence stretched between us. In it, I heard everything he wasn't saying.
"This situation isn't just my doing," he finally said, each word careful and cruel. "So maybe you need to learn to compromise too."
Compromise. Such a clean, reasonable word for what he was really asking—that I accept being second place. That I smile and stay quiet while he built a life with someone else.
He was getting tired of me. The realization settled like ice in my stomach.
I'd worked so hard to create fractures between him and Elena, but that damned blood pact kept forcing them together. It made me want to scream.
"I need to know something," I said, adjusting my emotions. "And I need you to be honest for once in this whole mess."
He waited, wary.
"Could you fall in love with her?" The question tasted like poison.
I watched his face carefully, looking for any sign, any tell.
He didn't answer immediately. He looked... uncertain. Confused. Like the question had never occurred to him and now that it had, he didn't know the answer.
---
Damon's POV
The question hung in the air like a blade poised at my throat.
Could you fall in love with her?
I opened my mouth. Closed it. The answer should've been simple—immediate. "No." But the word caught somewhere between my chest and my tongue, refusing to form.
Scarlett's eyes narrowed. She'd always been able to read me better than I liked.
"Damon." Her voice dropped, dangerous and quiet. "Answer me."
"No," I finally said, the syllable heavy and unconvincing even to my own ears.
But I couldn't look at her when I said it. My gaze slid past her shoulder, landing on the darkened window of my car.
"You hesitated." She stepped closer.
My jaw clenched. "You're reading too much into a pause."
I reached for her then, pulling her against me more roughly than I intended. She came, but her body stayed rigid. "Listen to me," I said, low and urgent. "This engagement is a formality. A performance for our families. Elena knows that. You know that. Nothing changes between us after the ceremony."
Her hands stayed flat against my chest, neither pushing away nor pulling closer. "Then prove it."