HIDDEN FATE & FRAGILE HEART.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The city had already come alive outside her window, but inside Elysian's apartment, the world felt serene in comparison. Damian was still there, seated on the armchair, his gaze fixed on her as though the night hadn't passed at all.

She stirred beneath the blanket, her chest tightening with the weight of words she had kept locked inside for too long.

"Damian," she said softly, her voice hoarse from sleep.

He straightened, his expression shifting from guarded to attentive in an instant. "Yes?"

Her fingers twisted the edge of the blanket. She didn't meet his eyes. "You should know... I'm not like other women...Or like other people."

His silver-blue gaze softened. "I already know that."

A thin smile flickered across her lips. "Not in the way you think." She paused for a while before she continued, " I'm sick." The words were blunt, and felt like she was reminding herself of the little time she had left, though she had learned to deliver them without trembling. "Inherited heart condition. My grand-mother died from it when she was only thirty. I'm twenty-four."

The silence stretched, heavy. She forced herself to keep going, her voice becoming soft. "I'm dying, Damian. Slowly, quietly. Every doctor says the same thing, there is no cure. No miracle." She laughed bitterly. "I am a model whose heart can't keep up with her own life. How poetic is that?" She let out another laugh.

She felt utterly hopeless, like the words slipping from her lips were a confession she had never dared make, not even to her own soul. Reality crashed into her again, sharp and merciless. She didn't know why she told him, why she let the truth escape, but something in her, believed she could trust him.

She knew she could die at any time........day, minute. And all she wished for was simple, to spend whatever time she had left in peace, in happiness, without pain, without fear. But the world was not granting her that mercy, and nothing was unfolding the way she had dreamed it would.

Her chest tightened, but she refused to cry. Not now. Not in front of him.

When she finally looked at him, she braced herself for pity. She expected the same helpless silence everyone else offered when they found out, the same hollow look her father wore years ago, in the moment the truth broke him.

But Damian's eyes burned with something entirely different. No sign of pity or sadness in them.
It held a fierce aching intensity, almost like a vow, and a storm she couldn't name.

"You're stronger than you think," he said at last, his voice low, steady. "Your heart may be fragile, but you... you are not."

Her lips parted, the quiet intensity in his tone shattering her composure. "Why do you say it like that? Like you know something I don't."

His jaw tightened. He leaned forward, his hand twitching as if he wanted to touch hers but held back. "Because I do."

Her pulse spiked. "Then tell me."

For a moment, she thought he would. His eyes locked on hers, unblinking, words caught at the edge of his tongue.

But then he exhaled sharply, forcing the storm back down. "Not yet."

Her frustration flared. "You keep saying that. You sit here all night, watching me, saying things that don't make sense, and when I ask ....."Her voice cracked. "You won't give me anything real, just few words, almost like a puzzle!"

Damian's eyes softened with something that looked like pain. "What I know... once you hear it, you won't be able to go back to the life you know. And I won't take that choice from you until you're ready."

Her breath trembled. "And if I never am?"

His expression shifted. "Then I'll wait. However long it takes."

Her throat ached with unspoken words, the weight of her condition pressing heavier. But for the first time, the thought of dying felt less inevitable, like a door she hadn't known existed had cracked open.

She hated him for giving her that sliver of hope. And yet she clung to it anyway

I won't let you die, we won't let you die. Damian's wolf whispered.