Chapter 12
Victoria stood frozen in the middle of the room, her chest rising and falling with shallow, uneven breaths. Her hand was trembling slightly as she clutched the edge of the desk for support. The door had slammed shut behind Selena, leaving Victoria and Damian alone in the tense, suffocating silence.
Damian turned to her, his face a mixture of confusion, anger, and something that almost looked like regret. “Victoria…” he started softly, stepping toward her.
“Don’t,” she snapped, her voice sharp and trembling at the same time. She backed away, keeping the desk between them as if it were a barrier she desperately needed. “Don’t come any closer.”
He stopped in his tracks, his hands half-raised, a gesture of surrender. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Victoria laughed bitterly, the sound cutting through the tense air like a blade. “That’s rich coming from you, Damian. You’ve already done more damage than anyone else ever could.”
“Victoria, you’re shaking,” Damian said, his voice low and almost tender. “Please, sit down. Let’s talk—”
“Talk?” she interrupted, her voice rising. Her eyes flashed with fury as she gripped the edge of the desk harder to steady herself. “You want to talk now? After everything you’ve done? After everything you and Selena plotted behind my back?”
“Selena—” he began, but she cut him off.
“Don’t you dare say her name to me!” she shouted, her voice cracking. “You knew what she was doing. You were part of it, Damian! Every lie, every betrayal, every plan to destroy me and my family—it wasn’t just her. It was you too.”
Damian’s face paled, and he took another step toward her, but Victoria moved sharply to the side, putting more distance between them. “Victoria, listen to me. It wasn’t like that—”
“Wasn’t it?” she hissed, her voice dripping with venom. “You were my husband, Damian. You made me believe you loved me. You made me believe that I could trust you. And all the while, you were plotting behind my back. Smiling at me during dinner, holding me in bed, all while you and Selena planned to gut my company and my life.”
“I didn’t—”
“Don’t you dare deny it!” she screamed, her voice cracking with the raw emotion she had held back for too long. Her hands were shaking harder now, but she clenched them into fists at her sides, forcing herself to stand tall. “You didn’t just betray me, Damian. You didn’t just lie. You—” Her voice faltered for a moment, and she swallowed hard before continuing. “You killed me.”
Damian flinched as if her words had physically struck him. “Victoria, I—”
“Don’t!” she shouted again, her voice shaking with rage. “Don’t you dare say you didn’t, because you did. You wrapped your hands around my throat, Damian. Your hands. You squeezed the life out of me. You watched as I struggled to breathe, as I begged you with my eyes to stop. You wanted me dead, and you did it. You killed me.”
His jaw tightened, and his hands curled into fists at his sides. “Victoria, I didn’t—”
“Didn’t what?” she spat, her voice rising again. “Didn’t mean to? Didn’t want to? Don’t lie to me, Damian. You’ve already done that enough for a lifetime. You killed me, and you would have walked away from it without a second thought if I hadn’t come back.”
“That’s not true!” he snapped suddenly, his voice loud and raw, cutting through her accusations like a whip. “It’s not true, Victoria.”
“Oh, it’s not?” she shot back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Then tell me, Damian. Tell me how any of this isn’t true. Tell me how you’re not just as much of a snake as Selena. Tell me how you can look me in the eye and say you didn’t want me dead.”
He took another step toward her, his eyes blazing with a mixture of anger and desperation. “I didn’t want you dead, Victoria. I never wanted that.”
“You tried to kill me!” she screamed, her voice cracking again as tears welled up in her eyes. “You did kill me, Damian. And now I’m back, and you don’t know what to do with that, do you? You don’t know how to handle the fact that you failed.”
“I would never—” he began, his voice shaking now.
“Never what?” she cut him off, her tone biting. “Never hurt me? Never betray me? Never kill me? You’ve done all of it, Damian. Every single thing. You’re no better than Selena. You’re just as cruel, just as manipulative, just as—”
“Stop it!” he roared, his voice filled with anguish as he closed the distance between them in two quick steps. Before she could move away, he grabbed her by the arms, holding her firmly but not painfully. “Stop it, Victoria. You don’t understand.”
“Let go of me!” she shouted, struggling against his grip. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
“I would never kill the mother of my child!” he yelled, his voice breaking with emotion. His grip tightened just slightly as he shook his head, his eyes locking with hers. “Never. Do you hear me? I would never hurt you. Not now. Not ever.”
