Chapter 44 44
Lila sat in the quiet of the living room, her body stiff, her mind racing. The door had barely clicked shut behind her when the weight of the last conversation settled over her like a storm cloud, dark and oppressive. She hadn’t left the house..she couldn’t. Not now, not with everything still unresolved.
She could feel the pressure building in her chest, as if the air itself was thick with tension, threatening to suffocate her. She had walked away from Damien’s words, but she couldn’t escape the part of her that still ached for him, still wanted to believe in the man she had once loved.
But how could she love someone who had tried to break her down piece by piece?
Her mind flashed back to the argument, to Damien’s eyes...cold, intense, unwavering..and the words that had struck her like daggers. I thought I was protecting you. The words still echoed in her mind, each one stinging more than the last. He wasn’t protecting her. He was controlling her, manipulating her into a cage of his making.
Lila stood up abruptly, her feet moving on their own as she paced the room. She could feel the walls closing in around her, her thoughts tangled with confusion.
She didn’t want to love him anymore. She couldn’t. But why did it hurt so much?
Meanwhile, Damien was in the kitchen, his jaw clenched tight as he paced back and forth, running his hands through his hair in agitation. She hadn’t left. He could hear her footsteps somewhere in the house, a reminder that she was still here, still within his reach.
He needed to make her see. Needed to remind her that no matter how hard she fought against him, he was the only one who could give her what she truly needed. He had always known what was best for her. It was only a matter of time before she realized that.
His phone buzzed, and Damien’s eyes flicked to the screen. Lila’s name. He stared at it for a moment, a flicker of something dark flashing in his chest. He didn’t pick up. Not yet. Not until he was ready.
She would come to him when the time was right. She always did. But this time, he wasn’t going to give her the luxury of walking away from him so easily.
Lila’s phone buzzed, snapping her out of her thoughts. Her breath caught when she saw the name flashing on the screen. Damien.
She didn’t want to pick up, didn’t want to hear the same words that had left her feeling suffocated just minutes ago. But something was pulling her in, something that she couldn’t deny. Part of her wanted to believe that he could change, that he could be the man he once was.
With a shaky breath, she swiped the call.
“Lila,” Damien’s voice came through the phone, calm but laced with a sharp edge, “You don’t get to walk away from me.”
Her stomach tightened, but she held her ground. “I’m not walking away, Damien. I just need space. I need to think.”
“You don’t need to think. You need to understand,” he replied, his voice a low growl. “You think you can just leave me like this? Do you think I’ll let you walk out on everything we’ve built? Everything I’ve given you?”
The words hit harder than she expected. He wasn’t pleading, he was commanding, pushing her back into the corner. “You haven’t given me anything I asked for, Damien,” she shot back, her voice trembling. “You’ve taken everything. My freedom. My peace. My trust.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Damien said, his voice tightening. She could almost hear the tension in the air on the other end of the line. “I’ve done everything for you, Lila. Everything.”
“I never asked you to control me,” she whispered, the words almost lost between them.
Damien was silent for a moment, and Lila’s heart raced, expecting him to lash out again. When he finally spoke, his voice was cold and dangerous. “You don’t get to tell me how this works. You don’t get to leave me after everything I’ve done for you. You’re mine, Lila. You always have been.”
Her throat tightened, panic bubbling up. “I’m not yours, Damien. Not like this. I never was.”
“Don’t make me remind you of your place,” he snarled. “You’re in my house. You’re here because I let you stay. I gave you everything. And this is how you repay me?”
Lila’s breath hitched. “I never asked for your charity,” she shot back, her voice rising in defiance. “I didn’t ask for this life. You’ve been controlling me for so long, Damien. You don’t even see it. You think you’re doing this for me, but all you’re doing is suffocating me.”
Damien’s tone shifted, becoming darker and more dangerous. “You think you’re going to leave me? Think you can just walk away from everything you’ve known? You’re too weak to survive without me.”
“I’m not weak!” she shouted back, her chest heaving. “I’m not the person you’ve tried to make me into. I’m not some helpless little thing you can keep locked up in a cage, Damien. I’m not yours to control.”
The silence that followed was heavy, thick with the weight of their words. Damien’s voice broke the stillness, quieter now, but no less intense. “You think I won’t fight for you?” he asked, his voice dangerously calm. “I’ll make you see, Lila. I’ll make you understand. You can’t walk away from me. You’re mine.”
She could hear the menace in his words, the unyielding control in his voice. The blood drained from her face as she realized what he meant. He wasn’t going to let her go.
“You’re wrong,” she whispered, the fear creeping into her voice. “I’m not yours. I never was.”Damien chuckled darkly. “We’ll see about that.”
Lila slammed her phone down, her hands shaking. The anger, the fear, the desperation..it was all too much. She wanted to scream, to break free, but Damien’s grip on her was suffocating.
She couldn’t stay like this; she couldn’t keep letting him hold all the power. But what choice did she have?
Damien stood in the hallway, his phone still in his hand, staring down at it like he could will her to call him back. But he knew she wouldn’t. Not yet. Not until he was ready to remind her that she belonged to him. And that was exactly what he was going to do again.
Lila might have thought she had power in this situation, but he knew the truth. He controlled everything. She would come back to him, just like she always did. Because no matter how far she tried to run, she was always going to be his.