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Chapter 15 – Almost Eighteen
Damon's POV
The crowd had mostly cleared, but Damon still stood there — staring at the doors she had walked through moments ago. The hum of voices, the cameras, the polite smiles — it all faded into background noise.
He had faced investors worth billions, kings, and politicians without flinching. Yet one seventeen-year-old girl had just managed to make his chest ache with something dangerously close to guilt.
She ignored me, he thought, jaw tightening. And I deserved it.
He turned his gaze to the empty stage, remembering the last time he'd seen those same eyes filled not with indifference but with tears — the night she confessed, and he tore her apart with words colder than steel.
Now, the memory tasted bitter.
And for the first time in a long while, Damon DeVille didn't know how to fix something.
He exhaled slowly, pressing a hand to his temple. "Let her be," he muttered under his breath, as if trying to convince himself. "She's better off that way."
But even as he walked out of Alderidge University, the faint scent of her perfume — that soft, sweet note he'd never forgotten — clung to his mind like a ghost.
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Athena's POV
By the time Athena got back to her dorm, her emotions were a mess of confusion and annoyance. She dropped her bag onto the bed and fell backward with a long sigh.
"Why does he have to show up everywhere?" she whispered, covering her face with a pillow.
She could still hear the cheers, see the girls' dreamy faces, and worst of all, feel his gaze brushing against hers again and again.
Her heart had thudded like a drum each time their eyes met — and that made her angry.
"I'm not doing this again," she muttered, sitting up. "Not this time."
She forced herself to pull her attention away from Damon and toward the large pink calendar on her wall. In big glittery letters, she had circled the upcoming Saturday.
Her eighteenth birthday.
The day she'd been secretly planning for weeks.
A small smile tugged at her lips as she opened her notebook filled with ideas — outfits, guest lists, themes. Something light and fun. Something normal.
For the first time in days, her chest felt lighter. She needed this. A distraction.
A celebration that belonged to her — not her father's world, not Damon's shadow.
Just Athena Brown, finally turning eighteen.
And maybe… just maybe, she could keep her heart steady for one more week.
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