Damien stared at his phone after ending the call, the silence in his office swelling until it felt like a physical weight pressing down on his chest. His fingers curled into a fist on the polished wood of his desk, nails digging into his skin until the pain anchored him back from the edge.
How had it come to this?
He had spent years building walls—fortresses of ice and steel — around his heart after the woman he once loved was torn from him, crushed beneath the ruthless machinery of power and vengeance. He’d watched her die in his arms. Felt the warmth bleed from her skin until only cold remained. She was his weakness, and his enemies knew it — used it like a weapon to break him. That loss had shattered him completely. In the aftermath, he’d sworn off love. Sworn never to let anyone clos
