CHAPTER 24: THE WEIGHT LIFTED

Alex stirred slowly, consciousness returning like gentle waves. After long , he wasn’t jolted awake by nightmares or the phantom sound of laughter echoing in his ears.

He felt... peaceful.

The late afternoon sun had shifted, casting long shadows across his small apartment. His arm was stiff from where Victoria had slept against him, but he wouldn’t have moved for the world. The memory of her tears, her fierce protectiveness, the way she’d chosen him over everything... it all felt like a dream.

But the lingering scent of her perfume on his shirt told him it was real.

Alex sat up carefully, rolling his shoulder, and noticed the folded paper on his coffee table. His name was written across it in Victoria’s elegant handwriting.

Alex,

I didn’t want to wake you. You looked so peaceful... the first time I’ve seen you without that careful distance in your sleep.

I have some wrongs to undo and a daughter to face. But I needed you to know, you are not alone anymore. You never have to carry this by yourself again.

See you soon.

—V

P.S. You deserve every good thing this world has to offer. I intend to make sure you get them.

Alex read the note twice, then pressed it against his chest. Something that had been coiled tight in his ribcage for months finally began to unwind.

The weight was lifting.

For so long, he’d carried Sophia’s cruelty like stones in his pockets, the humiliation, the isolation, the way everyone had looked at him afterward like he was broken goods. He’d gotten used to the heaviness, the way it made him careful around joy, suspicious of kindness.

But Victoria knew everything now. Had seen him at his most vulnerable and hadn’t flinched. Hadn’t pitied him or treated him like damaged goods.

She’d been furious on his behalf.

Alex laughed, surprising himself. When was the last time he’d laughed without checking over his shoulder first?

He glanced at the clock, 8:47 PM. He’d slept for hours, and it was the most restful sleep he’d had since... God, since before that night at Blackwood.

As he reached for his water glass, the system buzzed with a notifcation.

[SYSTEM UPDATE: Victoria Blackwood - Emotional Dependency: 100%]

Alex froze, staring at the screen.

One hundred percent. Complete emotional capture.

His chest tightened, but not with the familiar anxiety. This was something else entirely... realization, sharp and clear.

Victoria had confronted Sophia.

Whatever had happened between them, it had pushed Victoria’s dependency on him to absolute completion. She wasn’t just choosing him now... she was completely, utterly his.

Without thinking, Alex grabbed his phone and dialed her number.

It rang once before she picked up.

"Alex." Her voice was different. Calmer. Colder than he’d ever heard it.

"Victoria. Are you okay?"

A pause. Then, "I’m better than I’ve been in years."

"I’m coming over," Alex said suddenly.

"No." Victoria’s voice was firm but not unkind. "I need... I need to think about all of this. Process what just happened."

Alex’s chest tightened. "Victoria, are you sure you’re okay?"

"I will be." Her voice softened slightly. "Today has been... a lot. Finding out about Sophia, confronting her, cutting her off completely. I need some time to sit with it all."

"Of course." Alex forced understanding into his voice, even as worry gnawed at him. "Take all the time you need."

"Meet me at the office tomorrow? We can talk properly then."

"Yes. Whatever you need."

"Alex?" Her voice was quieter now, almost vulnerable.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For trusting me with your story. For letting me fight for you."

"Thank you for understanding me."

After she hung up, Alex stared at his phone, the apartment suddenly feeling too quiet. Victoria at 100% dependency but needing space, it felt contradictory, but maybe that’s what made it real.

She wasn’t just his now. She was still herself, still processing, still human.

And somehow, that made it even more meaningful.

____

"What a touching little conversation, lover boy."

The voice came from behind him... honey poured over broken glass, sweet and deadly. Alex’s entire body went rigid. He turned slowly, afraid of what he might see.

There, sitting in his threadbare armchair as if she’d always belonged there, was...

Alex’s mind simply stopped.

Language failed him. Every word he’d ever learned seemed inadequate, pathetic, laughably small in the face of what sat before him. This wasn’t beauty... beauty was a human concept, limited and ordinary. This was something beyond mortal comprehension.

She was darkness given form, sin made manifest, temptation personified. Her skin held the luminous quality of pearls, but with an underlying warmth that suggested fire ran in her veins instead of blood. Hair like spilled midnight framed a face that could have launched a thousand ships or toppled empires with a single glance.

But it was her eyes that made his knees weak, ancient wine-dark pools that held the weight of eternity, the accumulated knowledge of every desire, every secret, every forbidden pleasure that had ever existed. Looking into them was like staring into the abyss and finding it beautiful.

Her dress... if it could be called that... seemed woven from shadow and starlight, clinging to curves that defied geometry, revealing and concealing in ways that made his mouth go dry and his thoughts scatter like leaves in a hurricane.

She radiated power. Not the earthly power of wealth or politics that Victoria wielded, but something primordial, elemental. The kind of presence that made gravity seem negotiable, that made the air itself thick with possibility.

Alex opened his mouth, but no sound emerged. His brain had short-circuited completely.

She smiled... a expression that was equal parts angelic innocence and demonic promise, and rose from the chair with liquid grace.

"Cat got your tongue, darling?" Her laugh was music that could make angels fall. "Don’t worry. Most mortals have that reaction when meeting me for the first time."

She moved toward him, and Alex felt rooted to the spot, caught between the most exquisite terror and the most dangerous desire he’d ever experienced.

"Hello, Alex," she purred, stopping close enough that he could feel the heat radiating from her impossible form. "We have so very much to discuss."

_____

Author’s Note:

Ahem. Ahem. Deep breath. Tries to act normal.

Hello, author here, dear readers!

So... guess who is she?

I won’t name names. I’ll let you speculate.

And okay... did I maybe go a little overboard describing her?

Maybe. Just a bit. Possibly. (Absolutely not sorry)

But tell me, can you blame me? You only get one chance to write an entrance like that.

Until next Chapter,