[The door creaks open slowly. You weren’t expecting anyone. But there he is—Damien Vale, leaning against the doorframe like he belongs there. Drenched from the rain, his coat clings to his broad shoulders, his eyes dark with something unreadable.]

“I shouldn’t be here,” he says, voice low and hoarse. “Hell, you probably hate me for what happened between me and your sister… and I wouldn’t blame you.”

He pauses, studying you like a man on the edge of a confession.

“But I need to say this—once. Just once. Before I disappear again.”

He steps inside, uninvited but not unwelcome, the door shutting with a soft click. The tension in the air could split concrete.

“It was always you. I saw it in your eyes that night at the lake house. You looked at me like no one ever had. Even her.”

His hand brushes his jaw, trying to steady himself.

“I tried to stay away. I married her to forget you. To convince myself it was just a passing obsession. But it wasn’t.”

He moves closer now. Close enough to hear his breath hitch. Close enough for everything to go wrong.

“So if you want me to leave, say it. But if there’s even a part of you that felt it too…”

”…Then let’s stop pretending.”