The Wife He Never Meant to Love (Lila and Damon) novel Chapter 236

Chapter 236

Chapter 236

Damian might have been a child-

but he was not blind to the world around him.

Children, people often said, did not understand much. That they were too young to grasp the weight of adult decisions, too innocent to notice the fractures hidden beneath careful smiles.

But Damian understood more than anyone realized.

He saw it every day.

He saw his mother wake before the sun, already moving, already carrying the weight of a world that never seemed to lighten. He saw how she worked-not just hard, but relentlessly-as if standing still meant everything would collapse around her.

He saw the way she smiled at him.

And he saw the way that smile sometimes trembled, just slightly, when she thought he wasn’t looking.

He saw her trying.

Not just to provide for him, not just to give him a life filled with comfort and security-but to give him something deeper.

Something that could not be bought.

A home.

A real one.

Not just walls and ceilings and expensive things-but warmth. Safety. Love that stayed, even when everything else felt uncertain.

She gave him everything she could.

And more.

Damian knew that.

Even if she never said it.

Even if she thought he didn’t notice.

He noticed.

Because he had also seen what she had lost.

There were pictures.

Carefully kept, tucked away but not hidden enough.

In those pictures, there was a man.

His father.

Damon.

Damian had stared at those images more times than he could count. In them, Damon held him when he was small-so small he couldn’t even remember it. There was something gentle in those moments, something real.

His father’s arms wrapped around him.

His father looking at him.

Being there.

And every time Damian looked at those pictures, a quiet question would form in his mind.

What changed?

Because as far back as he could remember-

1/7

Successfully unlocked!

Chapter 236

Damon wasn’t there.

Not really.

Not in the way those pictures promised he once had been.

By the time Damian was old enough to understand things, to recognize faces, to form memories that stayed-

his father had already become someone distant.

Someone unreachable.

Instead, there had only been two constants in his world.

His mother, Lila.

And his uncle, Mark.

They were the ones who stood between him and everything that could hurt him. They were the ones who

made sure he never felt alone, even when something important was missing.

Mark had been steady, protective, always present in a quiet, dependable way.

But it was Lila-

his mother-

who became everything.

She was warmth.

She was safety.

She was home.

Even when she was tired.

Even when she was hurting.

She never let him feel it fully.

Or at least-

she tried not to.

Before the estate, there had been the island.

A small house.

Simple.

Nothing compared to the vastness of where they lived now.

But to Damian-

it had been everything.

Because that house had been full of something the estate could not seem to hold.

Warmth.

He remembered the mornings there..

Soft sunlight slipping through thin curtains, the sound of waves in the distance, the quiet rhythm of a life that felt… peaceful.

He remembered waking up and finding his mother already there, her presence gentle and constant.

Sometimes she would brush his hair away from his face.

Sometimes she would just sit beside him, watching, as if memorizing every small detail,

And those afternoons-

the ones that stretched lazily under the golden sun.

He remembered those most of all.

2/7

4

Chapter 236

Because those were the moments when nothing else existed.

Lila would hold him close, wrapping him in her arms, her warmth surrounding him completely. There had been

a kind of comfort there that Damian could never quite explain, only feel.

Safe.

Completely, undeniably safe.

As if nothing in the world could touch him as long as he was there.

No luxury, no grand space, no polished marble floors of the estate could ever replace that feeling.

The estate was bigger.

Grander.

Colder.

The mornings here felt different.

Too quiet.

Too distant.

The warmth that once filled his days seemed to have been left behind on that island, lost somewhere between the past and the present.

And then-

there were the nights.

Damian had learned, very early, to pretend.

To close his eyes and slow his breathing, to make it seem as though he was asleep.

Because at night-

his mother broke.

He heard her.

Every night.

The quiet, muffled sound of her crying, as if she were trying to keep it contained, trying to make sure no one else heard.

But he did.

He always did.

At first, he didn’t understand.

Why she cried.

Who she cried for.

But as he grew older, as pieces of the world slowly began to make sense-

he realized..

It was Damon.

His father.

The man who wasn’t there.

The man who had left something broken inside his mother.

And every morning-

she pretended.

As if none of it had happened.

As if she hadn’t shattered quietly in the darkness.

3/7

Chapter 236

She would smile.

Speak gently.

Move through the day as though she were whole.

And Damian-

he pretended too.

Pretended he hadn’t heard.

Pretended he didn’t know.

Because he didn’t want to make it harder for her.

Because somehow, even as a child, he understood that her strength was fragile,

That if he acknowledged it-

if he said, *I hear you*-

it might make everything real in a way she wasn’t ready to face.

So they both carried the same secret.

Together.

Silently.

When they moved to the estate, something in Damian had stirred.

A quiet hope.

Maybe this was it.

Maybe this was the reason.

Maybe his father was finally coming back to them.

The estate was big enough to hold a family.

Big enough to feel like a place where everything could start again.

Damian had imagined it-

moments he had never actually lived.

Playing with his father.

Talking to him.

Being seen.

Maybe this move was an apology.

Maybe this was how things would finally be fixed.

But the moment they stepped into the estate-

that hope began to fade.

Because even in a place so large-

Damon was still not there.

Not in the way that mattered.

Damian had seen him once.

Or at least-

something like him.

He stood beside the bed, small and still, staring at the man lying motionless beneath the dim lights and quiet

hum of machines.”

Damon.

4/7

Chapter 236

His father.

There-but not really.

The machines surrounded him, steady and cold, their soft beeping the only proof that life still lingered.

Damian didn’t understand everything about it.

But he understood enough.

His father was there.

And yet-

he couldn’t reach him.

Couldn’t talk to him.

Couldn’t feel him.

It had been a strange kind of meeting.

One that left more questions than answers.

And now-

Damon was awake.

The coma had ended.

The waiting was over.

But somehow-

nothing had changed.

Because even now-

he wasn’t there.

He had left.

Just like that.

No explanation.

No presence.

No attempt to close the distance that had existed for so long.

He had simply-

vanished.

Like air.

Like something that was never meant to stay.

And Damian didn’t understand.

He tried to.

He really did:

But every explanation he came up with only led to one question that hurt more than the rest.

Did his father hate his mother?

The thought came slowly.

Reluctantly.

But once it was there, it refused to leave.

Because what else could explain it?

Why would someone stay away like this?

Why would someone refuse to see the person who had waited for them, cried for them, stayed for them?

5/7

Chapter 236

Why would someone leave again-

after finally waking up?

Damian’s chest tightened as he thought about it.

Because if his father hated his mother that much-

what did that mean for him?

He was part of her.

Connected to her.

Did that mean-

his father could leave him just as easily?

The idea settled heavily in his small heart, too big, too complex for someone his age to carry.

And yet-

he carried it anyway.

Because there was no one else to hold it for him.

He looked at his mother differently now.

Not just as someone who protected him-

but as someone who needed protecting too.

Someone who had been hurt in ways he could not fully understand, but could clearly see.

And in his own quiet, childlike way-

he made a decision.

He would stay.

No matter what.

Even if his father left.

Even if things never changed.

He would not leave her.

Because she had never left him.

Because she had chosen him-

every single day.

And maybe-

that was what love really was.

Not the promises.

Not the words.

Not even the memories captured in old photographs.

But the choice to stay.

Again and again.

Even when it hurt.

Even when it was hard.

Even when the other person didn’t seem to choose you back.

Damian didn’t have the words for all of this.

Didn’t have a way to explain the storm of thoughts and feelings inside him.

But he felt it.

6/7

Chapter 236

Deeply..

And as he lay in bed that night, listening once again to the faint, familiar sound of his mother’s quiet tears-

he closed his eyes.

And pretended.

Pretended he didn’t hear.

Pretended everything was okay.

Because that was the only way he knew how to protect her.

Even if it meant breaking a little himself.

回

Subscribe

0 Likes

7/7