They Were My Lover and My Best Friend, Until They Became Each Other’s Chapter 04
I thought I would explode at her.
Demand answers.
Scream.
Instead, I felt strangely calm.
“I’m fine.”
I gently pushed her away and stood up to pack my things.
I didn’t linger over the traces of the love Damien and I once shared.
I only gathered the few belongings that still belonged to me from the yard.
At the very end, I picked up the tiny cross pendant I had bought for my baby during pregnancy.
Damien frowned.
“That’s all you’re taking? You don’t want the rest?”
I looked at him quietly.
“I don’t want any of it.”
If I could throw him away, the rest meant nothing.
But Damien misunderstood me again.
“Fair enough. You’re just going away to relax, right? Traveling light makes sense. I’ll send the rest to your new place later.”
My phone buzzed with another message.
As I lowered my head to reply, I heard Sloane speak softly beside me.
“The baby’s burial service finished today… you’re going to visit, right? Could I come with you?”
Maybe it was the pleading look in her eyes.
Maybe I was too exhausted to think clearly.
But before I realized it, I had already brought Sloane to the cemetery overlooking the cliffs.
I crouched beside the tiny gravestone and gently traced my fingers across it.
Then Sloane’s voice drifted down from above me, quiet as the wind.
“…Serena, you’re smart enough to know I was the one behind everything, aren’t you?”
My entire body went rigid.
I slowly looked up and met her calm gaze.
For one brief moment, guilt flashed through her eyes.
Then something colder followed.
Something vicious.
“Serena,” she whispered, “I’ve never begged you for anything before. Please… give Damien to me.”
My heart clenched.
Before I could react, she whispered one last trembling apology.
“Sorry.”
Then she grabbed my hand and drove the knife brutally toward her own stomach.
I stared at her in horror.
“Are you insane?!”
Blood splattered across my face.
The next second, Damien rushed forward and slammed me violently to the ground.
Sloane collapsed weakly into his arms.
“Damien… don’t blame Serena,” she said faintly. “She’s just angry about losing her baby.”
That single sentence ignited every ounce of rage inside him.
His eyes turned terrifyingly cold as he looked down at me, pinned to the ground by his men.
Panic crashed through me.
“I didn’t touch her! I swear I didn’t!”
But Damien laughed in fury.
“Serena, you really never learn.”
Then he gave the order coldly.
“Tear this grave apart.”
The last thread of restraint inside me shattered instantly.
When I saw the electric drill aimed at the gravestone, I completely broke.
“No… please don’t!”
I lunged forward desperately, but Damien crushed my outstretched hand beneath his shoe.
The sound of bones cracking exploded through my body.
Pain shot from my fingers through every nerve I had.
I bit so hard into the inside of my mouth I tasted blood just to stop myself from screaming.
“Damien! Stop them! That really was your chi…”
My voice weakened halfway through.
Damien’s expression flickered for the briefest moment, but Sloane suddenly cried out in pain from his arms.
“Damien… it hurts… take me to a doctor…”
His eyes instantly hardened again.
With a wave of his hand, he ordered them to continue.
The gravestone shattered into pieces.
The urn buried beneath it rolled out onto the ground, spilling ashes everywhere.
And in that moment, my heart died with it.
Damien bent down and lifted Sloane into his arms.
Then he kicked the knife across the dirt toward me.
“Serena, you don’t deserve how kind Sloane’s been to you. If you still have any conscience left, stab yourself and apologize to her.”
At some point, his men had already released me.
The wind at the top of the cliff carried the sharp scent of the ocean across my face.
I stared at Damien with dead, empty eyes.
“One stab is too easy,” I said softly. “Damien… I’ll apologize with my life.”
The moment the last word left my lips, I leaned backward.
And fell off the cliff behind me while Damien screamed my name.