Chapter 14
Isabelle followed Damien into the study, her voice still choked with sobs. “Damien, if Seraphina really hates me this much, maybe I shouldn’t have come back…”
Damien rubbed his temples, his tone still reasonably gentle. “Don’t overthink it. She’s probably just in a bad mood.”
“Why is she in a bad mood? Is it because of me?” Isabelle’s tears fell like broken pearls. “I know, I should never have come between you two…”
Damien poured himself a whiskey, not responding.
Seeing this, Isabelle cried even harder. “Do you not love me anymore? No one in this world has ever truly loved me. If you’re going to abandon me too, then what’s the point of me even being alive?”
With that, she bolted toward the floor–to–ceiling window.
h
www
Damien reacted in a flash, grabbing her wrist just as the expensive whiskey sloshed onto the floor.
“Stop this nonsense!” His voice was tight with suppressed anger.
Isabelle collapsed into his arms, sobbing. “Then can’t you be like you were before…?” She looked up, her eyes swollen and red. “At least punish her a little? The way she treated me today… it really hurt me.”
Damien was silent for a moment before finally nodding.
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sharp and insistent.
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They had just reached the door to Seraphina’s room when the mansion’s doorbell rang,
T
The butler hurried over, his face pale. “Mr. Blackwood, there are police officers at the door…”
Before he could finish, three uniformed
- in.
e
Seraphina was already standing in the hallway, as if she had been waiting. She was dressed in a silk robe, her long hair falling loos-
ely around her shoulders, glowing softly in the light.
“I’m the one who called them,” she said, her voice
Lerrif
gly calm.
Damien’s face darkened, “Seraphina!”
p
She slowly rolled up her sleeve, revealing g the shocking bruises on her arm. “T’d like to press charges against Isabelle Croft for assa- ult.” She looked at the officers. “The evidenc
“Are you out of your mind?” Damio
grabbed
right
wrist.e
was just joking with
you!”
“A joke?” Seraphina sneered, yanking her arm free. “Mr. Blackwood has a very peculiar definition of a joke.”
Isabelle’s face went white. She stammered, “I didn’t mean to… I was just…”
“Then apologize,” Seraphina cut her off. “Otherwise, we’ll let the justice system handle it.”
Under the watchful eyes of the police, Isabelle could only bite her lip and bow her head in humiliation. “I… I’m sorry…”
After the police left, Seraphina closed her bedroom door without a backward glance.
Damien stood in the hallway, his brow furrowed. Was he imagining things? Why had Seraphina become such a stranger?
Late that night, he knocked on her door.
Seraphina leaned against the doorframe, the collar of her robe slightly open, revealing her delicate collarbone. She held a glass of red wine, her voice lazy. “Something I can help you with?”
20:12
