ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED TO THE BILLIONAIRE SINGLE DAD (Gabrielle and Damon) novel Chapter 22

GABRIELLE’S POV

PRESENT

CONTENT WARNING: Dark themes, violence, murder, emotional manipulation, toxic relationship dynamics.

Damon’s expression was flat by the time I stopped speaking.

The silence made me uneasy.

I couldn’t let it continue.

“I went to see Zane so he could wipe the clinic footage,” I added quickly.

My brain was begging me to shut up, but I couldn’t.

“It didn’t work, so there’s probably footage of me kidnapping a patient,” I continued. “Although, judging by the state of that place, maybe they couldn’t even afford CCTV cameras.”

Damon still said nothing.

He just stared at me with the same unreadable expression that was beginning to make my stomach hurt.

I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. ‘In my defense, their security was terrible. Like… deeply concerning.’”

Still nothing.

Regret was slowly creeping up my spine.

Not for what I did, but for the possibility that Damon might actually be angry with me, or worse.

He returned to Aiden and leaned down to tap his face.

Aiden barely reacted, just a low groan from pain.

Damon straightened up and dragged him by the ankle closer to the grave, then paused to inspect it.

He gave Aiden’s work a disapproving look.

With a deep exhale, he took off his jacket, watch, and shirt—and hung them neatly on the branch of a nearby tree.

My eyes lingered on his body despite the situation.

He picked up the shovel and jumped into the hole.

I gasped, stepping a bit closer so I could see him. “What are you doing?”

He didn’t respond.

He drove the shovel into the dirt instead, making the grave longer.

The sound of metal cutting through soil echoed through the woods.

My brows furrowed slightly. “Damon?”

He kept digging in complete silence, his jaw tight and his movements rough, like he was trying to work something out in his head.

Dirt scattered around him with every shove of the tool, his back muscles flexing with every movement.

Aiden groaned weakly nearby, barely conscious at this point.

I glanced between both men uncertainly before looking back at Damon. “You’re making it bigger.”

“I know.”

His voice was flat.

Something about that answer made my stomach twist.

I stepped closer to the edge of the grave. “Why are you making it bigger?”

This time, Damon finally looked up at me.

His face was streaked with sweat and dirt, expression cold in a way I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“He’s a tall man,” he said calmly.

Then he went back to digging.

“You won’t say anything about what I just told you?” I asked.

He kept digging. “What do you want me to say, Gabrielle?”

I didn’t have a response.

A moment of silence passed between us.

“I was going to bring her back,” I said after a while. “Eventually.”

His jaw tightened slightly.

I immediately pointed at him. “See? That’s a reaction. I can work with that.”

“Gabrielle.”

The way he said my name made my chest tighten.

I swallowed. “Yes?”

He stood upright and turned to look at me. “You manipulated me into killing someone.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it again.

Because technically… yes.

“You let me believe you were terrified,” he continued, his voice cold. “You stood there shaking in my arms while I promised to kill him for touching you.”

“He did touch me,” I muttered defensively. “He even wanted to film it. And I was genuinely terrified in the end.”

Damon ignored that completely.

“You kept this from me,” he said. “You took my gun and you orchestrated the entire situation knowing exactly what it would do to me.”

I tried to speak again. “Damon—”

“I almost died when I heard you scream.”

That one landed directly in my chest.

His expression still hadn’t changed, but somehow that made it worse.

“You knew what hearing that scream would do to me,” he continued quietly. “You knew I would lose my fucking mind.”

I looked away briefly.

Because yes.

I did know.

“I didn’t know he would actually get that far,” I admitted softly. “The gun was supposed to hold until you got here.”

“But it didn’t,” he returned. “He could have harmed you, Gabrielle. You willingly put yourself in danger and it’s driving me insane.”

I turned back to look at him.

The tortured look on his face made my heart squeeze.

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “I just wanted you to do something about him. I wanted you back.”

Damon stared at me for so long that I started regretting every decision I had made in the last few days.

“You wanted me back?” he repeated.

I nodded carefully.

He dragged a hand down his face before looking away from me completely.

“You kidnapped someone’s mother,” he said. “You lured a vengeful man into the woods with an empty gun. You manipulated your husband and risked the life of our children’s mother. You risked the life of my wife!”

He paused.

“And your explanation for all this is that you missed me?”

I dropped my eyes to the ground, slightly embarrassed. “When you say it like that, it sounds dramatic.”

His head snapped toward me immediately. “It was dramatic, Gabrielle. And reckless.”

I winced slightly.

And again.

I should have been horrified.

Instead, heat spread slowly through my body.

Aiden curled into himself weakly, trying to shield his chest with his arms, so Damon redirected the kicks to his face instead.

Blood stained his shoe and the dirt beneath him.

Damon finally stepped back after a while, his chest rising and falling heavily.

His expression gave nothing away.

“She did all this so I could kill you,” he said calmly. “It would be disappointing if I didn’t.”

A weak grunt escaped Aiden in response.

I watched Damon kneel beside him and wrap a hand around his throat.

Aiden immediately clawed at Damon’s wrist, but his movements were sluggish and weak from the beating.

My breath turned shallow.

Damon’s grip tightened slowly, almost thoughtfully, like he wanted Aiden to understand exactly what was happening to him.

“No one touches what’s mine and lives,” he said.

Before I could even process that, he lifted his hand and struck Aiden hard on the face.

I flinched at the sound.

Aiden’s legs dragged uselessly against the dirt. His face darkened gradually as he struggled for air.

“That was how you hit her, right?” he asked, slapping him again on the side of his face. “Like that?”

I stood there watching but I didn’t feel the slightest guilt at Aiden finally getting what he deserved.

Only relief.

Relief that it was ending.

Relief that Damon had stopped hesitating.

Relief that the man who tried to destroy everything we’ve built would never get the chance to try it again.

There was no more wondering what Aiden would do to our family if Damon kept sparing him.

It was finally over.

Except Damon was still furious with me, and I didn’t know what to expect from him this time.

So I just watched him as he killed Aiden.

His face was cold and focused, almost empty except for the rage simmering underneath.

“I guess The Pit’s Reaper found you,” he said. “You should have stopped looking for him.”

There was blood on his chest and on one side of his face, and dirt smeared across his veined forearms.

God help me, seeing him like that did something questionable to me.

An electric jolt shot through me.

For half a second, the realization unsettled me because some dark part of me felt safer watching him like this, even though I knew I shouldn’t feel that way.

My pulse quickened slightly as Aiden’s struggling weakened.

I looked at Damon again.

There was this fury in his eyes and instead of recoiling from it, I accepted it.

Because this was who my husband really was.

And maybe this made me just as bad as him, but I loved every version of Damon Gravari.

Especially this one.