When morning came, every news channel was displaying the same news over and over…. Alexander dragging Stephanle out of the spa and then the chaos.
I didn’t flinch, completely detached from whatever was happening with my ex–husband, at last he was getting what he deserved.
Instead I turned to Damien with a small smile as he looked at me in concern “Let’s go for a
walk.”
With that we went on a stroll to the garden to the canopy of trees where Damien had installed a swing for me. With my am clutched in his, Damien kissed the back of my hand gently.
“When I lost my legs, I had given up all hopes to ever walk again but to think I will be able to regain almost all of my strength and heal miraculously like this…its all thanks to you darling, you are my lucky charm.”
“Really? Then how about you give me a reward?” I smirked making Damien laugh. He was much more happy than before, his body completely recovered.
We stopped beneath the cherry blossoms and he teasingly took me in his arms. “Just name it and its all yours.”
“The pink diamond necklace of your great grandmother.”
“Yours”
“The Stone mansion.”
“Yours.”
‘The stone business empire.”
‘Yours.”
‘Then if I have everything, what do you have?” I laughed, breaking into giggles.
future.”
‘You…I have you Lavina…and I have this baby….our baby as my
Listening to his sweet words made me speechless and thus without a word, I took his hand and placed it over my belly.
THUMP
gasped, stunned and Damien looked overjoyed too. “Did you feel that?” I whispered, tears ourning behind my lashes. “Damien… he kicked. The baby kicked when you touched.”
His eyes softened with something unspoken, thumb brushing gently across my belly as he kneeled kissing it lovingly.
‘Our baby knows that daddy is here to protect her.” he said.
The words hit something deep in me.
I blinked fast, laughed through the tears. “Damien… will you get engaged to me?”
His smile was slow, sure, like sunrise over stormy seas.
“Only if I you let me take care of you.”
And for the first time in years, forever didn’t feel like a threat.
2/2
79.3%
2:38 pm
It felt like home.
The Next Morning
I woke to sunlight and silence. No chaos. No raised voices. No cold sheets on the other side a
the bed.
Just peace.
Damien was already up, sitting by the window with a cup of black coffee, flipping through the morning papers. His posture regal, gaze unreadable but his eyes softened when he saw me stir. “Looks like we made headlines” he said, tapping the front page of the tabloids.
I rose slowly, fingers brushing over my belly as I walked toward him. He handed me the
newspaper.
DAMIEN STONE RETURNS AND HE’S NOT ALONE.
The Queen–To–Be Walks Beside Him. •
There we were captured in mid–step outside the boutique yesterday. I wore a soft cream mid dress, simple embroidery trailing the sleeves like vines. Damien, beside me, in a charcoal silk suit. One of his hands rested protectively at the small of my back, while the other carried a white rose bouquet the boutique owner insisted I take “for good fortune.”
What stunned the world, though, was not the outfits.
It was the love.
It was the way I had looked up at Damien like he was my safest place on earth.
It was the way he looked at me like I was the only thing that had ever mattered.
