Her Divorce, His Downfall (Sophia and Damian) novel Chapter 169

Chapter 169 Cornered

Two hulking bodyguards stood on the other side like a pair of stone sentinels.

The moment they saw her, they bowed. “Mrs. Hall, please go back inside.”

Damian raised a fist to his lips and gave a light cough before speaking, perfectly composed. “Don’t bother. Everyone in Willow Court is mine.”

Her entire body stiffened. Regret flooded through her.

She should never have come back so early.

And now she’d gone and summoned the lunatic straight to her door.

While she stood there seething, Damian walked up behind her with a jacket and draped it over her shoulders. He shut the door and locked it behind him.

“Put this on. You get cold easily. Don’t catch a chill.”

The click of the deadbolt sent a jolt through Sophia’s chest. She looked up and met his eyes.

bamian’s dark irises were a frozen abyss, deep and

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unfathomable, tinged with sorrow and raw anguish, yet churning with undercurrents, as if a storm was gathering just beneath the surface. Even a passing glance from him was enough to make her blood run cold.

For all the years Sophia had known him, she’d never seen his eyes hold so many conflicting emotions at once. Her heart an involuntary lurch of panic.

She backed up several steps to put distance between them, letting the jacket fall without bothering to catch it.

She forced the unease down and slipped on a mask of composure, her voice sharp with caution. “Mr. Hall, it’s the middle of the night. What do you want?”

gave

Damian didn’t answer right away. His gaze lingered on her face, tracing every delicate line, as if he’d finally recovered a priceless treasure he’d been desperately searching for. The obsessive, possessive fire in his eyes grew brighter by the second.

Every time she called him “Mr. Hall,” the rejection in her eyes cut him to the bone. He swallowed the sting and pressed it

down.

Afraid of scaring her, he let his expression soften. His voice

came out rough and low. “Don’t be afraid. I just came to see you. There are some things I need to say.”

2/6

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The most domineering, ruthless man she’d ever known was standing before her like this, stripped of all his armor, humbling himself in a way she’d never imagined. What the hell was he after?

He’d just gotten out of the hospital. He wouldn’t even listen to his grandmother and rest. Instead, he was here in the dead of night, making her life difficult.

What a nuisance.

Sophia fixed him with a cold stare, her face twisting with open disgust.

“I have nothing to say to you. Everything that needed saying was said last time. Damian, you saved me in Europe and I paid that debt back in the fire. We’re even.

“You survived the beating in the study. Lucky you. Let’s just call it done and go our separate ways. Stop coming after me. I don’t have feelings for you anymore.”

The loathing in her eyes was practically overflowing. She wanted nothing to do with him. Not a single thread of connection.

Damian listened to every word, each one cold and sharp as a knife. He saw the disgust written all over her face, and yet his mood didn’t seem to shift at all. His lips curved into a smile. 3/6

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“Finally done pretending, Aunt?”

Sophia went still.

Seeing the mocking glint in his eyes, her face flushed crimson and her chest burned with fury.

Damn it.

One look at him and she lost her composure. In her anger, she’d gone and blown her own cover.

But it didn’t matter. Whether she kept up the act or not in front of him, nothing would change.

The bottom line was that she wanted absolutely nothing to do

with him.

“I want you to leave. Right now. Or don’t blame me for what happens next.”

Sophia’s voice cracked with fury and desperation. His

unfathomable stare made her skin crawl, and she hated every

second of it.

“No.” Damian’s eyes bore into her. His throat worked, Behind them swirled guilt and a barely visible humility.

We’d searched for her for so long. He’d suffered for so long. Now

that he finally had a moment alone with her, he had to say what needed to be said, even if she hated every word.

His voice grew rougher, quieter, afraid of startling her. He stepped closer.

“I came to give you an explanation. Once the investigation is done, I’ll give you a full account.”

“Stay away from me!” Sophia’s voice shot up. Her cold gaze locked onto his, hatred surging through her like a tidal wave. A mocking smirk twisted her lips.

“An account? Can you afford one, Damian? When I was burning alive, you had your precious Isabelle in your arms and ran without looking back.

“Did it cross your mind to give me an account then? Now that I clawed my way out of death, you show up with this? You don’t find that pathetic?”

“That’s not what happened. You’ve got it wrong.” Damian squeezed his eyes shut in agony. When they opened, the storm had settled.

“Isabelle was never my true love. Everything I did for her, the indulgence, the tolerance, every time I went along with whatever she wanted, it was all because she’s the goddaughter of Aaron Butler. The man who saved my life.”

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Aaron?

That name again. Her mother, Elaine Moore’s first love. Her

third uncle.

What was the connection between Aaron and Damian?