For a split second, Lea couldn’t bring herself to say no.
But the moment she caught the troubled look on Damon’s face, her tears fell before she could stop them.
“Damon, is this hard for you? It’s really okay. If it’s too much, I won’t go tonight.” Her voice trembled with hope, expecting Damon to soften and comfort her, just like always.
Instead, he looked almost relieved. He reached out, gave her head a gentle, absentminded pat, and said, “Tonight’s… kind of a special case. You should stay here. Don’t come back with me.”
Lea stared at him, wide–eyed, disbelief flashing across her face, quickly replaced by a wounded, helpless look. The tears she’d tried so hard to hold back started falling again, heavier than before.
“Damon…”
C
But he seemed to barely notice. Distracted, he nudged her away and stared up at the ceiling light. “Is this the one that’s broken?”
Lea realized he wasn’t reacting the way she wanted. She bit her lip, sulked out a soft “Yeah,” and plopped herself down on the couch, refusing to even look at him.
But Damon wasn’t really there with her at all–his mind was stuck replaying the nightmare he’d had earlier, panic tightening its grip on him until it was hard to breathe.
Noticing something was off, Lea hesitated, but finally scooted over, voice thick with tears as she tugged gently at his sleeve. “Damon, what’s going on?”
He snapped back to the present, heart pounding so hard he actually broke out in a cold sweat.
Shaking her off, Damon frowned, pulled out his phone, and tried to call Emily.
But no matter how many times he tried, the call wouldn’t go through. The endless ringing only made him more anxious.
“Lea, I have to go. I’ll send someone to fix the light for you later.”
He tossed out the words without looking back, opened the door, and left in a rush, not bothering to see how Lea reacted.
The door slammed shut. Lea stared at it, her eyes burning with resentment.
She didn’t need to guess–of course Damon was running off to find that homewrecker, Emily.
Her hands shook with anger as she grabbed her phone and hammered out a message:
[Emily, how can you be so disgusting? You really want to be someone’s dirty little secret that much? Why don’t you just disappear!]
But as soon as she hit send, a glaring red exclamation point popped up.
14:104
Chapter 11
Emily had blocked her.
A chill ran down Lea’s spine. Instinctively, she deleted the message from her phone, just in
case.
Meanwhile, Damon rushed home, his heart in his throat as he pushed open the door–only to find silence. The one person he desperately wanted to see was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Emily? She’s not back yet?”
He didn’t know why, but his voice shook.
“We haven’t seen Miss Emily since noon, sir,” the housekeeper replied.
“Oh–and sir, when we were tidying up earlier, we noticed all of Emily’s things are gone.”
The words landed like ice water, making Damon shudder.
“What do you mean?”
The housekeeper looked confused. “Sir, didn’t you have her things moved? All her clothes are gone. I thought maybe you were going to buy her a whole new wardrobe…”
