Canceled Honeymoon Chapter 08

Canceled Honeymoon Chapter 08

Back then, Damian was the cure for my nightmares.

He pulled me out of the darkness and promised everything would be okay as long as he was there.

I dreamed of our first handhold and our first kiss.

I dreamed of him taking me home and his parents’ impatient stares.

I heard them scolding him in the study: “We look the other way when you fool around outside, but bringing her home? What are you thinking?”

“Have you no shame?”

“Damian, did you forget the terms of your trust fund? If you don’t marry Poppy Astor, you lose your board seat! You’ll destroy the business alliance between our families!”

That’s when I learned what his “childhood friendship” with Poppy really meant.

They were bound together by trusts and business interests.

It wasn’t some ancient betrothal, but their families’ fortunes were tangled up in each other.

They’d only accept each other in marriage.

Damian had a massive fight with his father in that study that night. He smashed two antique vases. The next day, all his credit cards were cut off. He took me and moved out.

That was his quiet rebellion.

I dreamed of our hardest times, crammed in a tiny East Village rental, happy just to hold each other and dream about the future.

Damian traced my face and said, “I dreamed we had a kid.”

I asked him what it looked like.

He said it was a girl who looked just like me.

A kid who looked like me.

A kid…

Panic seized me. I bolted upright in bed.

The sharp smell of antiseptic filled the room. White ceiling overhead.

I turned my head and saw my mom.

Her eyes were red. She gripped my hand. “Claire.”

“Just cry. Let it out. Don’t hold it in, okay?”