Chapter 144
Damon's POV
I took a flight back to Saint-Helier that same night, and as soon as I got off the plane, I headed straight to the Cross Manor.
When I pulled up to the Cross estate, it loomed dark and silent. I jabbed the doorbell repeatedly, not caring who I woke up. Elena owed me an explanation.
Nothing. No lights flickered on. No footsteps approached.
I pressed my face against the glass panel beside the door, peering into the darkened foyer. Empty. Completely empty.
"What the hell?" I muttered. Where was everyone?
I needed answers. And there was only one place I'd get them.
---
The Vance estate was never truly asleep. When I arrived home, security lights blazed across the grounds, my arrival no doubt already reported to whoever was monitoring the feeds.
I didn't care.
I took the stairs two at a time, my footsteps echoing through the marble hallways.
I didn't bother knocking. Just twisted the handle and walked in.
My father had already come down from upstairs, my mother beside him. For once, they looked less than perfectly composed—Marcus's hair disheveled, eyes sharp with the alertness that came from years of expecting threats.
"Where is she?" I asked.
The slap came without warning.
My head snapped to the side, the sharp crack echoing through the marble foyer like a gunshot. Heat bloomed across my cheek, my vision swimming for a moment as I staggered back.
"Stop!" Isabella's voice cut through the air as she rushed forward, grabbing Father's hand. "Stop it... Damon just got back!"
His face twisted with a fury I'd rarely seen directed at me. "This is the result of your indulgence!" His voice boomed off the vaulted ceiling. "The engagement became a laughing stock! The entire shifter community is watching our family's humiliation!"
I touched my stinging cheek, tasting copper where I'd bitten my tongue. The shock was wearing off, replaced by something darker. Anger. Confusion. And underneath it all, a desperate, clawing need for answers.
"Where is Elena?!" The words tore from my throat, raw and demanding.
Marcus's laugh was bitter, dangerous. "Asking about Elena now? How convenient."
"Answer me!" I stepped forward, my wolf stirring restlessly beneath my skin. "Where the fuck is she?"
"Damon!" Isabella grabbed my arm, her nails digging in even through my jacket. "Don't take that tone with your father!"
"Tell me what Caleb said to you," I demanded, my voice echoing off the walls. "How did you just let him walk into that ballroom? How did you let him take her up on that stage?"
Marcus turned on me so fast I almost ran into him. "Wasn't it you who didn't want Elena?" His voice was deadly quiet now, which somehow made it worse. "Wasn't it you who abandoned her in the lounge to run off to Starport?"
The words hit like physical blows. I opened my mouth to argue, to explain, but what could I say? That I'd been thinking about Elena the entire time I was with Scarlett?
"Is it..." My voice cracked, and I had to start again. "Is it because I left? Is that why you let her... why you let her marry Caleb?"
Marcus's smile was cruel. "Only as long as you weren't there, that platform wouldn't have been Caleb's to take."
I stumbled backward until my shoulders hit the wall, the cold plaster seeping through my shirt. "I didn't not want her," I whispered. "I just... I had to leave for a while. I had to..."
But the words sounded hollow even to me. I had left. I'd chosen someone else.
"It was that rogue wolf, wasn't it?" Marcus's voice was like a blade sliding between ribs. "Scarlett?"
"She has nothing to do with this!" But even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. Scarlett had everything to do with this.
Marcus stepped closer, backing me further against the wall. "Because of her, you abandoned Elena. You disregarded your grandfather's failing health. You ignored the blood pact!"
Each accusation was another weight on my chest, making it harder to breathe.
"You think you can still run wild like when you were a child?" Marcus's voice rose again as we moved deeper into the hallway. "Publicly rejecting Elena, then turning around to find that woman and cause us trouble!"
"I never—"
"Did you think about what Elena would face when you abandoned her? How people would talk about her? How they'd look at her?" He was shouting now, and I could feel my own control starting to crack. "Now Elena has gotten engaged to Caleb, and your grandfather is back in the hospital. Are you satisfied?!"
Each word was a hammer blow to my chest. I slumped against the wall, my breathing ragged. Everything—all of it—was my fault.
"Grandfather..." The word came out broken. "How is he?"
Isabella's voice softened just a fraction. "He did take quite a shock, and he's hospitalized now. But he'll recover soon."
Before I could feel even a moment of relief, Marcus's voice cut through like acid. "This is how you've ruined your son!" He turned on Isabella with venom. "Making excuses for him every time something goes wrong!"
"I'm just stating facts!" Isabella shot back, but her voice lacked its usual steel.
The guilt was eating me alive. Elena. Grandfather.
I pushed off from the wall suddenly, desperation giving me strength. "I have to find Elena. She can't just..."
Isabella stepped into my path. "It's no use going to find her! Elena said she was the one who pulled Caleb to complete the ceremony!"
"That's impossible." The words came out flat, dead. "Elena wouldn't do that. She wouldn't..."
But even as I denied it, images flashed through my mind. Elena on that stage, her hand in Caleb's. The way she'd looked at him during the vows. The way she'd initiated that kiss...
I wanted to howl in rage, refusing to accept what my mind was starting to understand.
Marcus's voice was ice-cold when he spoke again. "Elena is quite intelligent. She saw that Caleb has more potential than you, so she chose him."
"You're lying!" But my voice cracked on the words.
"She said she wanted everyone to know—she was the one rejecting you."
His words hit me like a physical blow.
Something was breaking apart inside my chest, sharp and jagged.
Marcus was already turning away, dismissing me. "I've agreed to let Caleb and Elena be together. Don't go harassing them." He paused at the foot of the stairs. "When Elena graduates, I'll arrange for them to complete the final ceremony."
I stood there as his footsteps faded up the marble staircase, my whole world tilting on its axis. Everything I'd thought I knew, everything I'd taken for granted—gone.