Kneel, Darling, Your Trophy Wife Is Gone Chapter 13
The sea breeze carried salt and mist as it brushed against my face.
I stood on the deck watching a pink whale burst through the distant ocean surface, its massive tail cutting
through sunlight and scattering glittering drops across the water.
For the first time in a very long while, I almost smiled.
Like something buried deep inside me had finally started loosening again.
Footsteps sounded behind me.
Damien walked out onto the deck and casually draped his coat over my shoulders before leaning one arm against the railing beside me, close enough that it almost looked like he was half-holding me in place.
I turned to look at him.
His smile stayed lazy. Easy. Like he never took anything too seriously.
“It’s been three months,” he said casually. “Heard Ethan’s losing his mind trying to find you. You seriously never plan on going back?”
I removed his arm from my shoulder and stepped away slightly, putting distance between us again.
My tone stayed calm..
“Mr. Santoro, I don’t think we’re close enough for you to put your hands on me whenever you want.”
“Try remembering that next time.”
Damien lifted an eyebrow, completely unbothered by the rejection.
“Cold.” He chuckled softly. “I’m still your travel companion. I even saved your life once. You really have to
treat me like a stranger?”
I didn’t answer.
I simply turned back toward the ocean.
He’d clearly hit another wall, but instead of getting annoyed, he leaned against the railing and kept watching
me openly.
Too openly.
That kind of gaze that never bothered pretending to hide itself.
“Nora,” he said suddenly, “you still haven’t answered my question.”
I glanced sideways at him.
“What?” My voice stayed light. “Did Ethan offer a huge reward for me? Thinking about selling me back to
him?”
Damien laughed under his breath
“Not even close.”
But after a short pause, the amusement faded slightly from his face.
“I’m just curious.”
“Six years together… and you really walked away just like that?”
The wind grew colder between us.
I looked at him quietly for a long time. Long enough that even the sound of the waves seemed to fade into
silence.
Then finally, I spoke.
“You already saw the outcome.”
I paused briefly.
“You handled the divorce yourself.”
Damien didn’t deny it.
I looked at him steadily.
“Actually, I’m the one who’s curious, Mr. Santoro.”
“Why have you been following me around for three months?”
The sea wind suddenly felt colder.
Three months ago, Damien and I parted ways at the airport.
Three hours later, I ended up hospitalized with a severe infection and fever. When I woke up, he was sitting beside my hospital bed. He claimed it was coincidence.
At the time, I believed him.
But later, I traveled to another city and somehow ran into him again. Same flight schedule. Same destination.
That was when I started getting suspicious.
But after looking into it, he wasn’t working for Ethan. And nobody else seemed to be tracking me either.
So eventually, I stopped asking questions.
I didn’t expose him.
And I didn’t push him away either.
Over the past three months, I’d gone to Paris, London, Rome, Iceland…like I was tearing my old life apart piece by piece and scattering it across the world.
Until today.
Only today did I finally realize that someone “coincidentally appearing” this often stopped being coincidence
a long time ago.
Damien shrugged lightly.
“Maybe you can interpret it as…” He smiled faintly. “A strong sense of chivalry.”
“Traveling alone isn’t exactly safe for a woman like you.”
A small smile tugged briefly at my lips.
“Believe whatever you want.”
I turned and started walking away from the deck.
But after only a few steps, Damien caught up to me again almost immediately, moving a little too fast-like
he was genuinely afraid I might disappear if he let me walk away.
He held out two tickets toward me.
“There’s a performance tonight in the theater lounge on the fifth deck.”
“Want to go?”
I was about to refuse.
But the moment I looked up, I caught something flickering through his eyes-fast, brief, but unmistakable.
Nervousness.
I paused slightly.
By then, he’d already returned to that lazy smile of his and shoved the tickets straight into my hand.
“Decision made.”
His grin deepened.
“Eight o’clock tonight.”
“Don’t stand me up.”
