Page 238 of Evil Hearts

Had she misread everything? The heat of his body against hers should have been soothing, but now it felt like a prelude to loss.

“Amelia, I am unworthy of you. My past, my very nature—”

“Don’t say that!” She lifted herself up on one elbow to look at his face. “You are more than worthy. You are extraordinary.”

His expression held a bluster of emotions she couldn’t quite decipher—pain, regret, something deeper and darker that made her heart clench. What haunted him so profoundly? Why did he see himself as a monster when all she saw was the man who’d captured her heart?

“???,” he insisted, shaking his head as if to dispel her kindness. “You deserve someone who can give you a life free of shadows, a future full of sunlight. I...cannot be that man.”

The blow of his rejection struck her hard and her chest ached. “But why?” she asked, her voice breaking. “Why can’t you let us be happy?”

“Because I do not deserve happiness,” he replied in a pained grumble. Then he gently disentangled himself from her embrace and rose from the bed, his movements slow and purposeful.

“Please don’t go,” Amelia pleaded, feeling the sting of tears behind her eyes, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it again.Every step he took away from her felt like another piece of her heart being torn out.

“I must,” he said, his back to her, the firelight forming long, shifting shadows across his sculpted form. “For your sake, lyubimaya.”

How could he think this was for her sake? The very idea twisted like a knife in her heart. Did he not understand that losing him would be the real torment?

“How can you say it’s for my sake when it hurts so much?” Her entire body quivered, raw with emotion.

“Sometimes,” Dimitri said softly, pausing at the doorway, “the greatest act of love is to walk away.” He stepped out of the room, leaving Amelia alone amidst the remnants of their passion.

Tears spilled down her cheeks, each drop fueling her heartbreak. She lay there, staring at the empty space where he had been, a hollow throb settling into her bones. Confusion and hurt seethed within her. Why did caring about him feel like losing him?

She’d always believed love would be enough to conquer any darkness. But now she wondered if some shadows were too profound to ever be fully illuminated by love’s light.

Chapter Five

Amelia was leftexposed in Dimitri’s bed in his bedroom within Shadowfield Manor, the cool silk sheets now a tangled mess around her naked body. Still shaken from their passionate encounter, she sat up, her ragged breaths a testament to her racing heart. She exhaled shakily, pushing herself up and out of the warmth of the bed.

Reaching for her scattered clothing, dress, bra, and panties on the floor, each piece became a shield against the vulnerability threatening to consume her.

Dimitri had abruptly left her moments ago and broke her heart.

Each piece of clothing was a small shield against the vulnerability that threatened to swallow her whole. She slid the dress over her head, the fabric clinging to her skin as she smoothed it down. She fastened her bra, then stepped into her panties.

The empty room only amplified her feelings of abandonment, and the disheveled bed stood as a cruel reminder of the intimacy they had just shared moments before.

Why did you leave, Dimitri? Why claim you are unworthy of me? Of us?

Determined to find him and demand to know why Dimitri stated he was unworthy of her, Amelia strode out of theroom, her resolve hardening with each step. The corridors of Shadowfield Manor stretched out before her, a warren of opulence and gloom. Ornate tapestries hung from the walls, depicting scenes from forgotten legends. Candelabras created pockets of darkness that seemed to breathe with life. Amelia felt as though the mansion itself was a living entity, its Gothic architecture equally grand and oppressive. The air was thick with the redolence of aged wood and polished marble.

She paused before a heavy oak door, her heart throbbing in her chest. Gathering her courage, she pushed it open and stepped into Dimitri’s study. The room had tall bookcases that reached toward the ceiling, their shelves lined with leather-bound tomes, journals, and old manuscripts. The smell of aged paper and leather overcrowded her senses, grounding her in the present moment.

Her gaze fell upon the desk, where old documents lay scattered in disarray. She picked one up, curiosity getting the best of her. Her breath hitched as she read the yellowed parchment, the dates and names revealing a timeline that spanned centuries. Dimitri’s name appeared repeatedly, woven through the fabric of history like an unchanging thread.

“How long have you been alive? Or did you have an ancestor with the same name?”

She ran her finger along the edges of a faded yellowed document, her eyes following the elegant cursive handwriting. Each page held secrets, stories from centuries past—battles fought, loves lost, and a life lived through ages.

She shook her head, trying to make sense of the man she thought she knew.

She read on, and the affliction of his existence pressed down on her, a realization that left her reeling. The man she thought she knew was far more complex than she could have ever imagined.

While she stood there, surrounded by the tactile proof of his long existence, she felt an urge to understand him better. More questions looped in her head, each one more urgent than the last.

Who exactly was Dimitri Volkov? And what did it mean for her, for them?

---