Chapter 107

Chapter 107
Chapter 107.

Shadows and Traps

Damian’s POV

The phone call had been brief, almost cryptic, without spilling the main message behind the call.

A familiar voice, but distorted, asking him to meet at the abandoned warehouse by the docks, alone. Midnight air clung to his skin as he stepped out of his car, his senses sharpened, instincts screaming that this was foolish and it's a trap.

The warehouse loomed before him, a skeletal giant of rusted steel and broken windows. Darkness pressed down on everything. The silence was heavy, too heavy.

He walked deeper in, boots crunching against gravel and broken glass. No one. His jaw tightened. Damn it. A trap, he thought. As He turned to leave, he heard someone call out to him.

“Damian.”

The voice froze him. Steady, calm, almost resigned to fate.

Immediately He spun back around. Peter sepped out of the shadows.

For a moment, Damian thought his eyes were deceiving him. Peter? Here? His pulse kicked up. He knew this man’s loyalty, A long time Aurora's crush, Tiffany’s puppet, her shadow, her main man.

If Peter was here, it could only mean betrayal. His fingers twitched near the gun at his hip.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Damian’s voice was sharp, guarded.

Peter raised his hands slightly, palms open. As a way of showing his vulnerability. “Relax. I came alone. Tiffany doesn’t know about this. No one does. And no one would.”

Damian’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t buy it. “Why should I believe that? You’ve been glued to her side since this war started, why the change of heart now?.”

“I was.” Peter’s voice dipped, softer. “But I had to ask you something. Something only you could give me the right answer.”

Damian stayed silent, waiting for the question that made peter go against his loyalty for Tiffany.

Peter’s eyes flickered, vulnerable for the first time Damian had ever seen. “Is it true? About Aurora? Is she… pregnant?”

The question hit like a blade. Damian’s breath caught, though he schooled his face into neutrality. “…Yes, she is.”

For a moment, Peter’s composure cracked. Sadness swept over his features, raw, unhidden. Damian recognized it instantly. He’d seen it before. In the mirror. In his expression.

“You…” Damian’s chest tightened. “You love her.”

Peter’s lips pressed into a thin line. His silence was the answer. Finally, he whispered, “Yes, I do.”

The admission cut deeper than any weapon. But strangely, it didn’t ignite fury. Instead, Damian felt the bitter sting of solidarity. His laugh was humorless, sharp. “So do I.”

Peter’s head snapped up, eyes widening, the realization hit him bad.

“Pathetic, isn’t it?” Damian continued, his voice low, broken at the edges. “Both of us standing here, bleeding for the same woman… a woman who doesn’t love us back, and who might never love us back.”

For the first time, Peter’s walls crumbled. He let out a rough breath, almost a laugh, though pain laced every note. “It feels like tearing yourself apart every time you see her smile at someone else.”

Damian’s throat constricted. He nodded. “But love… real love… isn’t about forcing it. It’s about protecting them, even if it destroys you. I’ll support her happiness, even if it’s with Dominique. If it’s meant for me, it’ll be mine someday. If not…” He shrugged, though his heart was burning. “…Then I’ll live with it.”

Peter’s gaze dropped to the ground, his jaw trembling. Those words rattled him, shook something loose inside. He’d been holding onto Aurora like she was oxygen, like she was his life line. His grip onto her was desperate and suffocating, like it was his only hope. But Damian’s raw acceptance sliced through all that.

“You’re right,” Peter said finally, his voice heavy. “It’s not love if it’s chains. I… I’ll support her too. Even if it kills me.”

For the first time, they weren’t enemies. They were two broken men, tied by the same impossible longing for a woman they love.

Peter took a step closer, lowering his voice. “Then you should know… Tiffany is planning something. Something big. She won’t stop until Aurora is destroyed. That’s why I called you. We can’t let that happen. Not to her. And especially not to her unborn child.”

Damian’s chest swelled with grim resolve. Their rivalry had been burned away, replaced by a pact forged in pain. Foes no longer. Allies in the shadows.

“Then we protect her,” Damian said firmly. “Whatever it takes.”

\---

Aurora’s POV

The city blurred past as she drove, her heart heavier than the night sky. Dominique had wanted to come, insisted even, but she refused. She needed space. She needed to breathe on her own, away from his suffocating intensity, away from the battlefield her life had become within a year.

Besides, she had something important to do. Her father deserved to know, that she's expecting a child.

Pregnant. The word echoed inside her, terrifying and fragile. A secret that now carried weight heavier than her own body.

As her apartment came into view, an odd stillness prickled her skin. Normally, the lights would be on. Her father was a night owl, her stepmother always humming in the kitchen. But tonight, it was different, there was pure darkness.

Aurora’s chest tightened. She parked, stepping out into the cold air. Her keys jingled softly in her trembling hand as she approached the door.

“Dad? It’s me,” she called, knocking lightly. Silence.

Her stomach dropped. She tried again, louder. “Dad? Open up!”

Nothing.

Her fingers twisted the knob. To her shock, the door creaked open. Unlocked.

Every instinct screamed at her to run, to call for help, but her feet betrayed her, carrying her inside. The passage was eerily silent, shadows stretching long across the walls.

“Dad?” Her voice shook.

The living room came into view, and the air was ripped from her lungs.

Her father and stepmother were tied to chairs, ropes digging into their arms. Her stepmother’s face was bruised, swollen, lips bloodied. Her father’s head lolled weakly, eyes glassy with pain.

And standing before them, like demons risen from the depths, were Tiffany and Alex. Men in dark suits flanked them, weapons gleaming.

Aurora froze, her body ice.

Tiffany’s lips curved into a chilling smile. Her voice was smooth, venom dripping from every syllable.

“Hello, Aurora.”

Her eyes gleamed with triumph, she truly desired.

“We meet again.”