He Chose His Secret Family So I Destroyed His World Chapter 03
The guards didn’t toss me out. Instead they walked me to a quiet lounge next door.
Odette trailed in after us. The door swung shut behind her, sealing off the noise of the party.
I knew this room.
The Benjamin Moore gray on the walls was a shade I’d picked for Damon myself. The floor was laid in herringbone oak. Every detail in here had once belonged to the future I’d pictured for us.
But now an enormous family portrait hung on the wall — Damon holding the baby, Seraphina nestled against him, her smile sweet and smug.
Every last trace of me had been erased.
“Sabine, I’m sorry it turned out this way.” Odette’s voice was calm, stripped of any warmth. “Damon has always been grateful to you. But what he needs is Seraphina. He needs the Ashford family standing behind her. And he needs a family that looks whole — one that fits his social class.”
I looked at her, my throat closing, unable to force out a word.
Odette went on, as if she hadn’t noticed, her tone clinical and remote.
“You’re a brilliant architect — independent, strong. Damon leaned on your taste and your company, but you mistook that reliance for love. From a psychological standpoint, you could call that a kind of… relational delusion.”
“Relational delusion?” I echoed, the phrase turning to ash on my tongue.
“Yes.” She nodded, no sympathy in her eyes, only a cold, superior appraisal. “We all knew Damon and Seraphina were never truly apart. We were simply helping him keep the balance that served him best.”
Then she spelled it out for me, piece by devastating piece.
“Last year, on your birthday, Damon told you he had a business trip to Hong Kong. Remember? He actually flew to Switzerland to be with Seraphina for a prenatal appointment.”
“And Gideon’s and my anniversary trip — we never went to Bali. We went to Greenwich to stay with Seraphina before the baby came, because she was struggling emotionally.”
“That anonymous call to your firm, the one reporting that your mental state had slipped and you weren’t fit to handle major projects — that was on Damon’s instructions too. He just wanted you to settle down and stop asking where he was.”
My mind went blank, a single image replaying itself again and again.
Odette, after she’d heard about my engagement, taking my hand and warning me, her voice grave: Sabine, old-money families are far more complicated than you think. You need to protect yourself.
So that was what she’d meant by complicated.
And when she’d urged me to protect myself, she’d meant from her — and from the man who shared my bed.
My stomach heaved.
Just then the door opened.
Damon and Gideon walked in.
Damon’s face was a mask of guilt and exhaustion. He parted his lips as if to speak.
Gideon kept his head bowed, unable to meet my eyes.
All at once, I didn’t want to hear a single word of explanation from either of them.
I brushed away the tears I hadn’t even realized were on my cheeks and looked at them calmly.
“I understand.”
My voice was light, but all three of them stared at me in stunned silence.
“I’m out.”
Then I raised my left hand and slowly slid the seven-carat engagement ring off my finger. I had designed it myself. Etched inside the band were the coordinates of the townhouse we co-owned.
I laid it on the mahogany coffee table. It struck the marble top with a sharp, crisp ring.
Once it had carried all my love and all my hope. Now it was nothing but a cold, meaningless object.
“Sabine…” Damon took a step forward, his voice hoarse.
I ignored him. I didn’t look at any of them again.
I turned, pushed open the heavy door, and walked straight out.
The cold air in the corridor cleared my head in an instant.
I drew out my phone, my thumb sliding across the screen until it landed on the familiar blue icon.
Zillow.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I navigated to My Home, found the Back Bay townhouse — and pressed the bright blue button.
List My Home.
