Chapter 94 – I Thought I Had Forgotten You
The car shot out of the mansion's driveway like a bullet.
Tires screeched against the asphalt as Diana floored the accelerator, as if trying to leave behind more than just that place. The black sports car launched onto the highway, an arrow freed from its bow, eager to bury itself in the darkness.
Too fast. Too aggressive.
The engine roared with contained fury while the city lights blurred around her, stretching into smeared lines of color that melted into the night. The curves of the road came one after another, relentless, and Diana took them without slowing down, defying gravity, defying herself.
The steering wheel creaked under the pressure of her hands, as if it too might break.
Her eyes barely saw the road.
Tears rolled down her cheeks in an incessant stream, hot, salty, impossible to contain.
"Titus…" she whispered, and her voice was shattering glass.
Another tear fell onto her lap.
"Titus… why did you do it?"
The car skidded slightly again on a curve, the rear wheels searching for a grip that seemed to escape them. The screech of tires pierced the night.
Diana squeezed the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white.
"Now… now I won't be able to resist anymore…"
Her breathing was chaos. Ragged. Painful. Each inhalation cost her a superhuman effort.
"Why… my Lord?" she murmured between sobs, the words escaping like water through her fingers. "Why, my Lord?"
The syllables broke as they left her lips.
"Why did you abandon me…?"
The car kept devouring kilometers of asphalt, hurtling at full speed down the dark highway, as if she could flee from her own thoughts.
"Why did you come back this way…?"
Another curve. Another jolt that slammed her against the seat.
"Why are you here… with me?"
The tears wouldn't stop. An endless river born in the depths of her soul, spilling out uncontrollably.
"Oh, Titus…"
Her voice broke completely, reduced to a rough, almost inaudible whisper.
"I love you, Titus… but this can't happen… not now…"
The words floated in the air of the car, heavy as lead, impossible to take back.
The car finally entered the city. The illuminated streets received her with indifference. A few minutes later, she braked sharply in front of a modern building with elegant lines and a glass facade.
Diana's apartment.
The engine died with a low growl, almost a lament.
Diana opened the door and jumped out, as if the car were burning her.
She walked quickly toward the building's entrance. Her heels clicked against the marble lobby floor with an urgency that betrayed her inner torment.
She entered the elevator without looking at anyone, without seeing anything. The floor numbers lit up and went out without her being aware of them.
When her apartment door opened, she entered brusquely, pushing the wood with a violence she didn't know she carried inside.
BANG.
The slam echoed through the empty hallway.
She walked straight to her bedroom, driven by a blind impulse.
She flung the door open with fury.
BANG.
She slammed that one too.
Her shoes flew off her feet, tossed aside with disdain, and landed somewhere on the floor without her deigning to look.
She took a few more steps.
And let herself fall onto the bed.
The mattress sank under her weight, welcoming her in a silent embrace.
On her headboard, resting against the pillow like a silent sentinel, was an old stuffed animal.
A bear.
Worn by the years. Faded in some spots. But with eyes that still shone.
Diana grabbed it instantly, with the urgency of someone reaching for a lifeline in the midst of shipwreck.
She hugged it against her chest with all her strength, squeezing it as if it were the only thing that could hold her broken heart together, the only real thing in a world crumbling around her.
And then, finally, she allowed herself to cry.
She cried with her whole body, shaken by uncontrollable spasms. She cried with her face buried in the stuffed bear, drowning her sobs in its soft cloth belly. She cried like someone who had spent too long containing an impossible pain, a pain that fit nowhere.
"Why…?" she murmured between hiccups, the words distorted by tears.
"Why did you come back like this…?"
Her fingers clung to the bear desperately, as if afraid that it too might disappear.
Tears soaked the pillow.
The sheet.
The stuffed animal.
And so she remained.
Hugging it.
Crying.
All night long.
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Hook: And that silence hid a danger that would soon come to light…