Chapter 72: Chapter 72
Silence stretched again.
Then, she asked, voice lower this time, "Did you ever think I could protect myself?"
Dominic leaned forward. "Yes. But I never wanted you to have to."
She looked at him. Harder this time.
"You watched me before you even knew me, Dominic."
"And I’ve hated myself for it every damn day since I fell in love with you."
Her breath hitched.
And for the first time, he let his voice break. "You looked at me like I was yours, Celeste. And I—I wasn’t worthy. Not with what I’d done."
Her chest rose and fell.
"And now?"
"I want to be. I want to be a man who earns your gaze, not just watches it. I want to be better."
"You should’ve told me," she whispered.
"I know."
The file in her lap felt heavier than iron. She closed it gently. Not because it didn’t matter, but because it did. It mattered too much.
She reached forward and touched his hand briefly. Just a brush of his skin, enough to feel the tremble in his fingers. Enough to make her own heart ache.
"I don’t forgive you yet," she said.
He nodded.
"But I don’t hate you either," she added softly, holding his gaze.
His eyes closed for half a second. Like those words alone had kept him breathing.
"Then that’s enough for me right now."
"Perhaps all men would end up like my father," she whispered, and the words tasted like regret. It tasted so much like the truth she never wanted to own.
Dominic stilled. He never expected that. He knew his actions did hurt her, but he never expected this deep hurt.
His throat tightened.
Then slowly, he dropped to his knees in front of her.
Celeste’s heart skipped. "Dominic..." she gasped, thinking he might have been sick, and missed a footing or something.
Her breath caught when she realized he was perfectly fine, but decided to kneel before her. She blinked, alarmed. "Please, get up."
He didn’t move. He just stared up at her, his hands placed on his lap, and open like he’d already surrendered everything else.
The ache in his eyes was not the usual cold, calculated stare of a man who once hired someone to find everything about her.
This was something else.
"I can’t lose you," he said, his voice raw. "Not after you gave me a taste of what letting go feels like"
Her chest tightened.
He wasn’t dramatic by nature. This man—this powerful, dangerous, calm man—was now on the floor like a fallen titan. All for her.
"Dominic," she said again, stepping toward him, almost afraid of what she saw on his face. "You need to stand. Please."
However, his gaze only deepened, holding her with an ache she couldn’t outrun.
"Don’t leave me, Celeste."
The words gutted her. It gave her a sharp blow on her stomach, and she almost puked due to the rush if emotions that came in at once.
She dropped to her knees in front of him, heart pounding. Her hands reached out, gripping both sides of his shoulders like she needed to feel him solid, She believed she could shake some sanity into this moment.
"You think I want to leave?" she whispered, her face close to his now, her eyes burning. "You think just because I’m not breaking into a million pieces right now, I want to leave?"
His throat bobbed.
"I don’t know what I think. I just know I deserve to lose you." He held her gaze, his more filled with tenderness. "I don’t want that to happen. I believed in getting what I deserve but can what I deserve skip me this once?"
"Then why the hell are you making it harder?" she said, her voice shaking with restraint. "Dominic, you watched me. You put me in a folder. You turned me into a project. And still, still—"
She swallowed hard. Her voice softened to a tremble.
"Still you acted like we were strangers. Still, you made me believe you did not know me, and that you hated me, when we first met."
His breath caught. It was visibly painful.
Celeste shook her eyes, and her eyes watered. She sniffed, and pulled him into a hug.
The hug wasn’t one of reassurance, nor promise.
It was a desperate, human thing. The kind of hug people give when everything is falling apart but the only thing left to do is hold each other in the dark.
Dominic’s arms wrapped around her slowly. Then fully. And his body—strong, composed, unshakable—trembled slightly against hers.
He buried his face into the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply like her scent was the only thing keeping him tethered to the moment.
Celeste had randomly hugged him a few times but this was the first time she felt him truly responding to the hug. She knew he wasn’t a hugger.
"I thought I was protecting you," he whispered, voice strained and wrecked. "I thought... if I knew everything, I could stop anything before it happened. But I didn’t know I’d fall in love with the girl I was watching."
Her fingers curled into his shirt. Her lips trembled against his shoulder.
"I’m not your secret, Dominic. I’m not your guilt."
"I know." He pulled back slightly, enough to look her in the eye. "You’re my heart. And I’ve never known what to do with something that fragile."
Her forehead rested against his. The silence between them was thick. It was grief and love coiled into one strange breath.
Finally, she exhaled. "I don’t know how to move forward like this never happened."
He nodded. "Then we won’t. Not until you’re ready."
"But I’m tired of being afraid," she said. "Afraid that loving someone means watching them betray me."
"I won’t betray you again."
"You already did." She refused to let her emphatic side cloud this. She was used to not letting people know how she felt with the fear of them getting mad, and leaving her but with Dominic, she knew she can, and she will.
"I know."
He closed his eyes.
She didn’t respond right away. She just pulled him back into her arms, resting her chin on his shoulder.