Chapter 210 210
“Here.”
Damien held out a photo album to her.
Jacqueline took it, only then realizing it had been sitting beside him on the settee the entire time without her noticing.
He opened it for her.
The moment her eyes landed on the first page, a soft smile curved across her lips.
Two toddlers stared back at the camera with wide, curious eyes. One had bright jade-green eyes, while the other possessed those familiar olive ones she knew so well.
Jacqueline chuckled quietly.
Dominique and Damien.
She flipped the page.
Her smile widened as she found more pictures Dominique and Damien wrestling, dancing, making ridiculous faces, even posing in costumes. Some photographs included Sofía and Fernando, and a few pages later she spotted Alexandre among them as well.
The album was filled with memories frozen in time.
But then her gaze caught on something new.
A girl.
She had soft curls framing her face.
Jacqueline’s brows drew together slightly as she turned another page. More photographs followed, each capturing different moments over the years.
And then she reached the final picture.
Everyone was gathered together there even some faces she didn’t recognize.
Among them stood a beautiful girl.
Damien hadn’t said a word yet, but Jacqueline knew.
Deep down, she already knew.
“Her name was Gabrielle.”
His voice finally broke the silence.
The sorrow woven through those few words squeezed painfully at her heart.
“You… you don’t have to tell me,” Jacqueline whispered gently.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to know about his past.
She simply didn’t want him to relive the pain.
“I want to,” Damien rasped quietly.
She nodded.
“She planned to confess her feelings to me on her eighteenth birthday,” he said. His tone sounded calm, but the despair beneath it was impossible to miss.
Jacqueline reached out and gently took his hand, giving it a soft squeeze.
“But before she could…” he continued, his voice faltering slightly. “She left me.”
Her chest tightened painfully.
“She died in my arms.”
For a moment, Jacqueline’s heart stopped beating.
Then it started again too fast, too hard.
A strange ache spread through her chest as she watched his eyes grow glassy. It was the first time she had ever seen them like that.
“She died… and I couldn’t save her.”
His voice dropped to a broken whisper.
Jacqueline moved closer to him instinctively.
A painful memory surfaced in her mind the cruel words she had once thrown at him during their argument, when she believed he thought she was Julien’s woman. Back then, she had mocked him about the woman who left him.
The guilt twisted sharply inside her now.
She shouldn’t have said those things.
She should have simply walked away.
But now she understood.
Now she finally understood why Damien carried so much anger and darkness inside him.
He had loved Gabrielle deeply.
And when she died, something inside him had shattered.
Jacqueline lifted her hand and gently cupped his cheek.
His watery olive eyes lifted to meet hers.
Seeing him like this so broken, so vulnerable hurt her more than she expected.
She placed both hands on his face just as the first tear finally slipped down his cheek.
Jacqueline wiped it away softly, though her own eyes were already filling with tears.
This wasn’t the intimidating, grumpy, scowling Damien she had come to know.
This was a wounded man.
A man who was still bleeding inside.
“This is how I became the man I am today,” he whispered.
Jacqueline looked at him as if he were a fallen angel.
“You’re strong, Damien,” she said quietly.
They held each other’s gaze.
A faint, sad smile appeared on his lips as he shook his head slightly.
“She may be in heaven,” Jacqueline continued softly, “but she’ll always remain here.”
She placed her palm gently against his chest, directly over his heart.
Even though saying it stung in a strange way, she knew it was the truth.
“She’ll always have a place in my heart,” Damien murmured.
Then his fingers closed around her hand.
“But now… there’s someone else who rules here.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm tenderly.
Jacqueline’s heart stuttered.
“This bird “Coco” was hers,” he said, glancing toward the small red bird in the cage nearby.
Her heart began racing wildly.
The story was heartbreaking.
He never deserved to suffer through such loss.
“I want you to set it free with me,” Damien said quietly.
Her eyes widened.
“Damien… this…”
She was still shaken by everything he had just told her.
“I want to move forward,” he said.
She swallowed the thick knot of emotion rising in her throat.
Damien opened the cage door and gently lifted the bird in his hands.
Then he tilted his head toward her, silently asking her to join him.
Jacqueline reached out and softly took his hand.
“You’re free now,” Damien murmured to the bird. “Just like our Gabrielle.”
He released it.
The bird flapped its wings and soared into the dark sky until it disappeared from sight.
Both of them stood there quietly, watching the empty night above them.
Jacqueline’s heart was pounding wildly.
She turned toward him.
Taking his hand in both of hers, she lifted it and pressed soft kisses against his knuckles.
Damien inhaled sharply when she raised her gaze to meet his.
Those eyes of hers shimmered with unshed tears.
“Let me heal you,” she whispered.
The same words she had once spoken to him months ago.
“You already have,” he replied calmly.
Her heart jolted at the confession.
Before she could react, Damien lifted her easily and settled her onto his lap. Jacqueline grabbed onto his shoulders instinctively, her eyes widening, her heart racing.
“You came into my dark life like a damn sun,” he said in that deep, rough voice.
She stared at him in disbelief.
“D-Damien…”
But he pressed a finger gently against her lips, silencing her.
“I didn’t want anyone in my life,” he continued. “But you were so damn persistent. It irritated the hell out of me.”
His hand tightened around her waist.
“You just barged into my life like you belonged there.”
His voice remained gruff, yet something vulnerable flickered beneath it.
“You were annoying… irritating… cheerful… ridiculously talkative… and unbelievably beautiful.”
His eyes locked onto hers so intensely that she forgot how to breathe.
Everything about the moment felt surreal.
“You were like a wild hurricane,” he murmured, his free hand sliding up to grip the back of her neck possessively.
“A hurricane that turned my entire life upside down.”
His voice dropped lower, thick with raw emotion.
“After all these years… you made me feel again, Jacq.”