Chapter 9

Seeing that the dinner hadn't ended yet, Damon hurried back to his room to change, then went straight up to the rooftop garden.

Once everything was ready, he texted his friend to bring Ivy up.

But the reply never came.

Damon frowned. He glanced up and caught sight of a plane crossing the sky, and the unease in his chest grew heavier.

He couldn't help himself and texted Ivy, telling her he had a surprise waiting on the rooftop.

The message was sent but showed as blocked. Even the friend who'd agreed to bring Ivy upstairs sent back a vague, apologetic text:

【Damon, sorry man, something came up at home, I had to leave. Maybe do the proposal another day?】

Meanwhile, Ivy looked out the plane window at the clouds and slowly exhaled.

Goodbye, the place where she'd grown up.

All the sweet memories and the painful ones — they'd be buried here along with everything between her and Damon.

She was going to have a new life and a new love.

As for her and Damon — they'd never see each other again.

...

Damon waited on the rooftop for an hour before he finally couldn't take it anymore and went downstairs to find Ivy.

If the surprise was ruined, so be it. He could pick another time to propose.

Ivy wouldn't turn him down anyway.

The thought put him somewhat at ease, and he gripped the ring box tighter.

He reached the ground floor. The guests had all left. Only Eleanor sat in the living room, holding an old photo of herself with Ivy's mother, quietly murmuring apologies.

Saying she hadn't raised her son right, that Ivy had been hurt and driven away, and the Mate Promise their families had made all those years ago had never been fulfilled.

The unease in Damon's chest surged again. He stepped forward. "Mom, why'd you pull out the photo with Mrs. Pemberton? Where's Ivy? Where'd she go? Wasn't there supposed to be some dinner tonight?"

Eleanor wiped the tears from her eyes, looked up at him, and said evenly, "Ivy's gone. She went to Havenridge."

Damon relaxed and sat down beside his mother, smiling as he put an arm around her. "Oh, she went to Havenridge. Mom, you miss her that much? Anyone who didn't know would think she's never coming back. Did something happen with Aunt Helena? She left before the dinner even ended. She said she'd wait for me to go with her... If you'd told me sooner, I wouldn't have gone to pick up the ring today. I'd have gone to the Capital with her."

Eleanor looked at her foolish son and felt nothing but exhaustion. "Ivy isn't coming back. She went to Havenridge to get married."

Damon shot to his feet, muttering "impossible" over and over.

But he couldn't stop his mind from flashing back to the hospital — Ivy saying she was going to the Capital, saying she didn't need him to come, and at the end, saying goodbye.

And that snowy night, the box that had looked somehow familiar...

Damon stared at Eleanor, forcing the words out. "Mom, what was in the package you had me deliver to Ivy?"

He'd nearly opened it at the time. Something had even fallen out. But Sienna kept calling, and he was worried something was wrong, so he'd only glanced at it.

Damon looked at Eleanor, desperately hoping she'd tell him it was just an ordinary little gift, nothing important.

But the next second, Eleanor's words shattered his last shred of hope. "It was the Pack Bonding Pendant our families exchanged when the Mate Promise was made. The Mate Promise Scroll was inside too."

Damon's mind went blank.

So when Ivy returned the gifts and gave back the Bonding House, she wasn't throwing a tantrum. From that moment on, she'd already decided to leave.

And he'd been so sure of himself, so certain that he and Ivy were inseparable parts of each other's lives, that he'd recklessly used Sienna to provoke her, hoping Ivy would do what she always did — get angry but still give him a way to make up, and they'd be fine again.

What had he done?

Damon stared blankly at his own hands.

He'd thought Ivy was lying about Felix harassing her. He'd said she was just competing with Sienna for attention. When the car crashed, he'd saved Sienna. When danger struck, he'd abandoned her. He'd even said they were nothing to each other anymore — that even if Ivy died, he had no right to attend her funeral.

The more he thought, the more the pain twisted in his chest until he could barely breathe.

Just then, the friends who'd left the dinner couldn't hold back any longer and started texting:

"Damon, what's going on? Ivy just told everyone she's going to the Capital to get married. Is it with you or not?"

"She's not really marrying someone else, is she? Stop being stubborn and just go make things right. You two have years of history — you can't let it end like this."

"I really think you've gone too far lately. You've been grinding Ivy's pride into the dirt. Stop fighting with her and just apologize. A man apologizing to the woman he loves isn't something to be ashamed of. If she actually marries someone else, you'll regret it and it'll be too late."

The last message was from Sienna: "Damon, when are you coming back? The power went out. I'm scared."

Message after message, each one stabbing at his eyes.

That house with no power — it was the Bonding House he'd originally gotten for Ivy. Later, because Sienna said she'd never lived in such a big house, he'd made Ivy give it up for her.

Ivy must have already been disappointed in him by then, right?

And all those nights when the power went out, he'd been at Sienna's side because of the so-called Life Debt.

All those nights, how scared must Ivy have been, all alone?

He couldn't bear to think about it anymore. With shaking hands, he turned off his phone, covered his eyes, and tears seeped through the gaps between his fingers as he kept murmuring, "Mom, Ivy really doesn't want me anymore. She doesn't want me..."

He was her son after all. Eleanor sighed. "If you know you were wrong, then go get her back. Even if you can't, you still owe her an apology."