The CEO's Rejected Wife And Secret Heir novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Chapter 138: The Confrontation

Damien pov

"We do," I agreed. "And Aria? I know you don’t have to say it back and that’s okay. I don’t need you to say it until you’re ready"

"Damien." She cut me off. "In that warehouse, when Marcus had the gun to my head, you know what I thought?"

"What?"

"That I couldn’t die without telling you the truth." Her eyes were wet. "That I love you. I’m in love with you. Completely, terrifyingly, all-in love with you and I have been for months now, infact i never stopped loving you even after you hurt me I just used my anger to mask it all."

My breath caught. "You"

"I love you," she repeated, smiling through tears. "I love the man you’ve become, the father you are. The partner you’ve proven yourself to be. I love your terrible sense of humor and your obsessive spreadsheets and the way you make pancakes shaped like dinosaurs even though they always turn out looking like blobs. I love."

I kissed her again, deeper this time, pouring years of longing and loss and love into it."Ow," she gasped when we broke apart. "Ribs."

"Sorry." But I was grinning like an idiot. "You love me."

"I love you," she confirmed. "Don’t let it go to your head."

"Too late." I kissed her forehead, her cheeks, anywhere I could reach. "Way too late."

"You two are disgusting," Olivia said from the front, but she was smiling. "Also, we’re at the hospital. Try to keep the making out to a minimum while I check your girlfriend’s possibly fractured ribs."

"Fiancée," I corrected. "She’s my fiancée."

"Right." Olivia rolled her eyes. "Your fiancée who just took a bullet and needs medical attention. Can you be madly in love after I make sure she’s not internally bleeding?"

"Fine." I helped Aria out of the ambulance, keeping my arm around her waist. "But for the record, I’m not stopping being madly in love. That’s permanent now."

"Good," Aria said, leaning against me. "Because I’m not stopping either."

As we walked into the hospital—battered, exhausted, but together—I felt something I hadn’t felt in years: Hope. Real, genuine hope that we could build something lasting. That the Blackwood curse could be broken. That love could actually win.

Behind us, another ambulance arrived carrying Vivian. Ahead of us, Noah was safe at the lake house, waiting for his parents to come home.

And beside me, Aria—brave, brilliant, beautiful Aria—who’d chosen mercy over revenge and saved us all in the process. "Damien?" she said quietly as we waited for the doctor.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For coming after me. For not listening when I said to stay away. For" Her voice cracked. "For loving me enough to fight for us."

"Always," I promised. "I’ll always fight for us. For you. For our family."

"Our family," she echoed, smiling. "I like the sound of that."

"Me too." I kissed her hand. "Me too."

Aria’s POV

The hospital room was quiet except for the steady beep of monitors and the sound of Damien’s breathing as he dozed in the chair beside my bed. It was 4 AM. My ribs were taped, painkillers flowing through my IV, and I should have been sleeping.

Instead, I was staring at the ceiling, replaying Marcus’s words in the warehouse.

"I was seven years old when Father broke my arm because I cried. Seven. And where was Damien? Standing beside Father, learning to be just like him."

I’d known Richard Blackwood was cruel. Damien had told me bits and pieces about his childhood. But hearing Marcus describe it—the beatings, the starvation, being locked in basements—it painted a picture I hadn’t fully understood.

Damien hadn’t just been emotionally neglected. He’d been systematically broken. Taught that love was weakness, that compassion was failure, that survival meant becoming a monster.

"You’re thinking too loud." Damien’s voice was rough with sleep. "I can hear your brain working from here."

"Sorry." I turned my head to look at him. "Didn’t mean to wake you."

"I wasn’t really sleeping." He sat up, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "Every time I close my eyes, I see Marcus pointing that gun at you."

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