Chapter 20
ANOTHER WORLD
A quiet shore can't calm a storm in the heart
Della
No matter how many miles I put between us, the pain is still fresh and sharp. It doesn’t fade away.
Dorian is still in my heart, in my mind, on my skin… and Leah’s thorns are still deeply embedded in my chest, tearing me apart with every breath.
I need to keep moving.
I force myself forward—through the crowd towards the exit, through the chaos of thoughts and feelings.
And then—
“Chiquitaaaa!”
Her unmistakable, bright and joyful voice.
I turn my head just in time to see Silvia almost running towards me.
She looks the same and somehow different—athletic, sun-kissed skin and an energy radiating from her like she belongs to this coast. Jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and the kind of smile that makes the world feel a safer place.
She throws her arms around me, and I collapse into her chest. I didn’t know how much I needed this embrace until now. Tears slip hot and silent, but I hold her tighter.
She squeezes back, then leans away, her eyes flashing.
“Do you want me to fly to Chicago and kick his millionaire’s ass? Just say the words. I would love to make him suffer a little.”
Her tone is so perfectly her—deadly serious and wickedly playful—that I laugh through my tears.
This is Silvia. Always trying to lift the spirits.
“I missed you so much, Chiquita!” I manage, wiping at my face. “You look amazing! California suites you!”
“Yes, I know.” She tosses her hair in mock drama, smiling. “Now let’s get out of here! Let’s go home!”
* * *
Silvia’s home is a small house outside the city, so close to the water it feels borrowed from the ocean itself. Seagrass bends in the wind, and waves crash in a steady rhythm against the shore. A small piece of paradise.
We leave my suitcase at the door and walk straight to the beach.
The warm breeze brushes my face, tangling through my hair. It feels like it’s trying to wind my thoughts away.
I stare at the horizon, endless and indifferent.
My fingers find the ruby, its weight a heavy promise against my skin.
It blazes with the love in his eyes and burns with the memory of his betrayal.
I clench it in my fist, his edges digging in my palm.
I should throw it in the ocean, let the waves swallow it whole—the promise and the pain. But my fingers refuse to let go.
This small secluded beach is exactly what I need now— a quiet shore away from Chicago, and the storm of people and painful memories I left behind.
“I feel like this ocean,” I murmur. “Calm on the surface, reflecting the sun, the light… while deep down the darkness swallows everything—life, hope.”
Silvia stands beside me, watching the small waves.
“Della, you know I love the ocean and could talk about it till tomorrow,” she says with a soft smile and warm voice, turning her gaze on me. “But I love you more. Tell me what happened. All of it. The good, the bad… everything.”
I let myself slip on the sand and… I tell her.
For an hour, maybe two, words spill. Not in fragments or nightmares, but whole. From the moment I left Chicago five years ago, through the ruin and silence, the hospital walls, Leah’s poison. Through the numb years where I buried myself in work.
Silvia takes my hand, her eyes wet.
“Chiquita… You walked through hell and you came back alive. You are a fighter.”
Her arms fold around me, strong and warm.
“Forgive me for not being a better friend. I was so wrapped in my studies, and later moving here… I’m so sorry. I had no idea what you went through.”
I close my eyes and let her hug wrap around my heart.
“There is nothing to forgive. I was a wreck. At first, I couldn’t talk and after, I didn’t want to talk. Besides my sister, no one knew.”
“I’m so happy that you came, Della. I am here for you now.” She whispers.
“I am so happy I came to see you, too.” I breathe, not letting go. “In a way, I have to thank Leah for it.”
Her brows shoot up as she stretches her arms and looks me in the eyes.
“What has that snake got to do with it?”
So, I tell her about the storm of the last week—the Excalibur, meeting Dorian, the lake house, and everything that followed till today when Leah ambushed me at the office.
By the time I’m done pouring out my soul, the sky bleeds red into the waves. I’ve drawn absent circles and a heart made of two D’s, back to back, that the waves came to erase. My chest feels raw, but a lot lighter.
“I thought I was done with Dorian… finally erased him. But at the lake house…” I whisper, clutching the ruby. “I realized he never left my heart. I just forced myself not to think of him, not to feel.”
“I remember you were so in love, and over the top happy back then,” she says gently. “This kind of love is a dormant fire, Della. If it reignited, why did you run now?”
“I had to. If I’d stayed, I’d be in his apartment now, losing myself.
He said there was more he needed to tell me…
I remember. It sure was about this,” My chest tightens, ribs aching like they can’t hold my heart inside.
“I know that Leah is a snake. She lied and deceived us both. But still… why did he take her money?”
“Ask him, Della,” she says, her gaze steady and unyielding. Let him explain it.”
“I know, I know…” I whisper, my voice cracking. “I’m afraid, Chiquita. I’m afraid I’ll never stand without him. I know he can and will put the world at my feet, but who am I without him?”
Silvia pulls back, her look serious.
“You're the woman who survived. You're the one who built a career back home, from nothing. He doesn't define your strength, Della—he's just the man who has truly seen it. Forget who you are without him—who do you want to be for yourself?”
“For five years, I lived a mime of a life, Silvia. I wore the right clothes, accomplished all the tasks, and smiled at the right moments. But it was a performance in a silent movie. The colors were out, the laughter was soundless and the joy was just a gesture. I was lost. But with Dorian, those last days, life turned back on. And now, I’m terrified of losing it again. I need to find my fire. On my own.”
She pulls back, framing my face in her hands.
“Then it’s time you live. And learn something new. Love yourself.”
She smiles, a spark of her usual joy returning.
“Girl time, Della. Lots of it. I’ll take care of that.” Her expression softens. “And… therapy. You need it. Not as weakness, but as power. I know someone in Chicago. A friend of a friend. You can start online, whenever you’re ready.”
I nod, because she’s right. My sister told me the same. I just hadn’t been ready to hear it. Until now.
When the night chill creeps in, we head back to the house. I curl up on her couch, the sound of waves filling the silence. My phone lies dark on the table, a weight I’ve avoided for too long. My fingers tremble as I unlock the screen.
Twenty-seven missed calls and twelve messages from Dorian.
‘Della where are you? Please let me know if you are ok.’
‘I know about Leah. I can explain.’
‘Della, please… I am dead worried. Where are you?’
‘I am so sorry. You are right to feel betrayed. Please let me explain.’
‘I love you.’
I stop reading and type quickly, before my courage can flee.
‘I’m in San Diego, at Silvia’s. Can’t talk. Not yet. I need time.’
Send.
The message is marked seen just a second later. He is typing back… then stops. Deleting…
My heart skips a beat. He is typing again. A single message arrives:
‘I understand.’
My lungs expand all the way for the first time since I left.
Outside, the waves crash against the shore, endless and untamed. I watch them, a silent lesson in power. They don’t wait for anyone. They don’t bend for anyone.
Neither should I.
I love him—with every broken piece of me. But being with him now, means losing the last piece of myself I have to fight to keep.
That girl of twenty-one, who believed she was too small for this world, who let fear and shame cage her, who expected to be saved—she’s still inside. But so is the woman who survived. The woman who is becoming stronger. Alive. Ready to make her dreams come true. No expectation of salvation.
Silvia brings me a blanket, draping it around my shoulders.
“This is just the beginning, Chiquita,” she whispers.
I nod, pulling the blanket tighter.
Yes. A beginning.
* * *
Dorian
The stars blaze sharp tonight. But all I can feel is the darkness crawling under, devouring the hope that had just begun to bloom after the last days with Della.
I tighten my grip on the terrace railing, knuckles bleaching, metal biting into my palm. The wind cuts across my face, cool, relentless.
Della loves the wind. She once told me the wind felt like a hug from the sky.
But tonight, to me, it feels like emptiness. I need her in my arms.
I stalk from the terrace to the bar inside and back, the space feeling less like a home and more like a cage. Every muscle in my body is coiled, screaming for action—to fly, to drive, to act.
But all I can do is wait. The helplessness is a poison, and I feel it crawling through my veins.
I will lose my mind if I don’t find out tonight where she is. Julian is still combing through O’Hare’s flight records, calling every airline. David is working another angle, trying to reach Della’s sister-Alexandra.
And still—nothing.
Tomorrow, I handle Leah. One signature is all I need.
I was a fool to think she wouldn't dare twist the truth to hurt Della. I was going to tell her myself, tonight.
The thought is another shard of glass in my gut.
The phone buzzes. A message.
Della.
My heart hammers against my ribs.
I’m in San Diego, at Silvia’s. Can’t talk. Not yet. I need time.
Relief slams into me so hard my knees nearly buckle. She’s alive. Safe.
I type back instantly, my fingers clumsy: ‘I’ll be there in the morning. I need to explain.’
My thumb hovers over send. Then I stop.
Every instinct in my body screams at me to go, fix everything, claim what’s mine. But I read her message again. ‘I need time,’
She doesn’t want me there. And she is right.
With a raw sound that rips from my throat, I force my thumb to move… delete.
Each deleted letter feels like a surrender, but it’s the only promise I can keep for her right now.
I type two words: I understand.
And I do. Even if it hurts—like someone has their fist wrapped around my heart and is dragging it across broken glass, I will give her time. I will give her space. But I will not give her up.
She’s on the other side of the country. But at least we are on the same continent. Still within reach.
I go back inside, into the quiet of the apartment. I pour a drink, scotch neat. My hand shakes so hard the glass nearly slips. I down it in one swallow, the burn useless against the storm in my chest.
I call David. He picks up on the first ring.
“She’s safe,” I rasp. “San Diego. With Silvia.”
He exhales, relieved. “Good. That’s good.”
“Good?” My voice is razor-sharp. “She ran from me, David. Leah poisoned her again.”
Silence stretches, then David’s voice drops.
“Then make sure Leah can’t poison her ever again.”
“I will.” The words taste like iron. “Tomorrow. Maddox has the papers ready. Leah is out—of the company, of my life, of every damn corner of my world. I should have done it years ago, but I let her linger like a sickness. That mistake cost me Della.”
I hang up and fire off messages.
To Maddox: Tomorrow. 9 a.m. My office. Bring everything.
To Julian: Stop searching. I found her. Meeting at 9. Get Kingsley.
The letters blur on the screen, my chest tightening with the weight of it all. I set the phone down and press my palms to my eyes until stars burst behind them.
I should’ve told Della the truth the moment I saw her again. Should’ve laid it all out before Leah had the chance to twist it. Now she thinks I betrayed her. That I sold her love for money. And maybe she’s right. Maybe I did.
The thought guts me.
I step back onto the terrace, scotch burning a hole in my stomach. The city sprawls beneath me, glittering, indifferent. Above, the stars burn cold.
Tomorrow, Leah ends.
One way or another.