CHAPTER 4 — THE WAR THAT FOLLOWED HIM HOME
CHAPTER 4 — THE WAR THAT FOLLOWED HIM HOME
Boston changed overnight.
Not officially. Not publicly.
But everyone who mattered felt it.
Donor accounts froze.
Board members resigned by morning.
Three influential families received envelopes without return addresses. Inside: evidence, recordings, financial crimes, and one simple message—
You will not recover from this.
Damien didn’t leave Maren’s side in the private hospital wing he took over.
She lay under soft white sheets, monitors tracking every heartbeat of the child still inside her.
“He’s stable,” the doctor said. “But stress nearly triggered early labor.”
Damien’s jaw tightened.
“Who did it?”
Maren hesitated.
Then whispered: “They said I was nothing. That I deserved it.”
Something in Damien snapped—but quietly.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
That night, he stood alone in the hospital balcony, phone pressed to his ear.
“Find every name connected to Briarwell Academy,” he said.
A pause.
Then:
“No warnings this time.”
When he returned, Maren was awake.
“Damien,” she whispered.
He sat beside her immediately.
“I don’t want you becoming that person again,” she said softly.
His expression softened.
“I never stopped being that person,” he admitted.
A beat.
May you like
Then, quieter:
“I just stopped showing it… for you.”
