๐ฌ **I Stopped Loving Him Eight Years Ago - HOT**
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#drama #romanticdrama #lovestory #romancedrama #StoppedLovingHimEightYears #CinelatinoDrama
Enjoy this captivating drama that will keep you hooked from start to finish!
๐ **Story Highlights:**
โข Emotional storyline filled with twists and turns
โข Powerful performances and compelling characters
โข Bite-sized drama episodes
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ
๐ **Subscribe** for daily drama updates!
๐ **Like** if you enjoyed this video!
๐ฌ **Comment** your thoughts below!
๐ **Share** with fellow drama lovers!
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ
#drama #romanticdrama #lovestory #romancedrama #StoppedLovingHimEightYears #CinelatinoDrama
Category
๐ฅ
Short filmTranscript
00:00Eight years ago, I followed Damien Ashfield from the Louisiana Bayou to his Boston mansion, blinded by love.
00:07He repaid me with betrayal, humiliation, and a mistress in our bed.
00:12His mother framed my brother. He watched him die.
00:15That night, I lost my brother, my baby, my will to live.
00:19Grandmare's ancient mirror gave me one impossible chance.
00:22I warned my past self. I rewrote our story.
00:25Now he alone remembers a marriage that never happened, and it is driving him insane.
00:30On New Year's Eve, I used Grandmare's mirror to reach myself eight years ago.
00:36The mirror clouded with mist. Her eyes lit up.
00:39Damien told me he loves me today. He's building me a garden by the Bayou.
00:44Every New Year's Eve with me, spoiling me forever.
00:48She chattered on. I listened, faintly smiling.
00:51Where Damien was pinning a strange woman to the floor-to-ceiling window, devouring her mouth.
00:56Pinned by his weight, the woman leaned forward, pressing a wet mom print onto the fogged glass.
01:00Damien let out a low groan, his hand moving roughly against her body.
01:04I didn't move. I didn't stop them.
01:07The woman tilted her head back, uncomfortably, finally catching my reflection in the glass.
01:11She visibly froze, then bonelessly clung to Damien, rubbing against him.
01:16Damien? Why is someone else in your house?
01:19Yes. Unbothered, Damien used her tilted head to deepen the kiss.
01:22Mid-kiss, he opened his eyes to look at me, his gaze cold and jockeying.
01:26She won't mind. Will you, Addie?
01:30I got sick of answering that question years ago, from hysterics to numb acceptance to losing the will to speak.
01:36But my past self went deathly pale.
01:39With shaking hands, she severed the link.
01:42The performance by the window only escalated.
01:46I looked down and texted my brother, Luke, though he'd long been gone for distraction.
01:51The woman giggled excitedly, her hands roaming even more boldly over Damien.
01:54Where did you find this wife of yours?
01:57She's so generous.
01:59I didn't give her the reaction she wanted.
02:02Entangled, they stumbled upstairs, shedding clothes all the way.
02:06Just a routine, erotic show in this cold, Beacon Hill townhouse.
02:10I couldn't even be bothered to look up anymore.
02:13The noisy TV New Year's countdown made me drownsy.
02:17I was almost asleep on the sofa when my phone screen lit up.
02:21A text from Damien, just three words.
02:26Go buy it.
02:28Attached was a photo of lube.
02:32And still, I said nothing.
02:35On New Year's Eve, Boston's back bay was deserted, with few adult stores open.
02:40Back from a freezing half-hour walk, I overheard two maids whispering.
02:45Poor Addie. Eight years here, and she's treated worse than the help.
02:48Well, she played dirty to get that ring.
02:51Mr. Ashburn keeping her around is pure charity.
02:53Memories yanked me back to the past.
02:55During his college spring break in Louisiana, we met and fell in love.
02:58It was pure and fierce as the gulf wind before a storm.
03:01Warm, reckless, impossible to hold.
03:03I left everything behind and followed him to Boston.
03:06But his mother, Eleanor, violently objected, calling me swamp trash.
03:11Damien held my hand tightly back then.
03:13Don't worry. I'll handle my mother.
03:17Later, my brother Luke in New Orleans, who always avoided risks, was suddenly pulled into a massive financial scam.
03:22Cornered, he blindly signed papers from a shadowy middleman.
03:25Those papers made him the perfect fall guy for a federal money-laundering indictment.
03:29Eleanor offered a deal, marry Damien, and the federal charges would be dropped.
03:32I already loved Damien, so why would I even need terms?
03:36Naturally, I agreed.
03:37I thought we were just moving the date up.
03:39I didn't know Eleanor had fed him forged texts and bank records involving me and Luke.
03:44She made him think I only wanted his money.
03:46Even on our rushed wedding night, I was still burning with passion, thinking I'd finally found my happy ending.
03:51But once he was done, his tender look turned to pure, icy disgust.
03:57He threw a check at me.
03:58You own me. Never forget that.
04:01Our marriage became a scam he believed I'd plotted with my brother.
04:05It wasn't that I never asked for a divorce.
04:07But whenever I spoke, he'd smirk coldly.
04:10You want out? Fine.
04:12Pay back that five million, with interest.
04:15Or my lawyers reopen your brother's case, and he never sees daylight again.
04:19Luke was out of reach.
04:22This debt was permanently chained to me.
04:25Damien yanked the door open, his chest covered in glaring red marks.
04:29Took you long enough.
04:30He snatched the bag, its stick edge scraping my cheek with a slight sting.
04:34She's too tight. Couldn't wait.
04:37In my peripheral vision, a stark naked figure on the bed.
04:40My stomach lurched violently.
04:42Vial rose in my throat.
04:43I turned to flee.
04:44Want to stay and join?
04:46But from behind, his tone was amused.
04:48Unable to hold it, I rushed to the bathroom, vomiting until my vision darkened.
04:52Back before the mirror, reconnecting with myself eight years ago, I asked,
04:57Do you think he still loves you?
04:59She cried, still in disbelief.
05:02He said it was only me. He promised.
05:05Without living this eight-year hell, words were useless.
05:09Like me, she'd blindly defend him, calling it a temporary misunderstanding.
05:16I didn't blame her, only inviting her to watch a little longer.
05:20When I woke up on New Year's Day, the woman from last night was already gone,
05:25but a pair of lace panties was left on the sofa.
05:28Damien followed my gaze, suddenly wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me close.
05:33What, jealous?
05:34He lowered his head to kiss me, but I intentively turned my face away.
05:38The rare glint of tenrous in his eyes indently morphed into a sneer.
05:42There it is again, that dead-eyed look.
05:45The only time you ever came alive was when you crawl into my bed to save your brother's ass.
05:51His words pierced me, shame flooding my veins.
05:56He shoved me away coldly.
05:58Enough. We have to go to Cape Cod today for my mother's New Year's brunch.
06:03His mother, the last person I wanted to face.
06:07For all these years, she had always looked at me like I was absolute filth.
06:13Yet this time, she didn't even glance my way.
06:16She was on the sofa, bonding with Damien's woman from last night.
06:20She was Victoria Hartwheel, Toadie.
06:22The perfect old money match Eleanor had chosen for Damien years ago.
06:26Eleanor patted Tori's hand, her eyes gleaming with undisguised satisfaction.
06:31Sweetheart, if it weren't for that girl, you'd have been an Ashton years ago.
06:36Damien walked over with a knowing smirk.
06:38I'm already married, Mother.
06:40But if you like her company, she's welcome anytime.
06:44Tori smiled, looking playful and utterly harmless.
06:47But that word, babe, was exactly what had tortured me all night while they were at it.
06:53Right now, they smiled at each other, looking like the real family.
06:58While I stood at the edge of the foyer, not knowing where to put my hands, or where I belonged.
07:05Simply because Tori said, I'm craving pork.
07:07Eleanor had the kitchen prepare an entire table of pork dishes.
07:10But my family's spiritual vow, Bourbind eating pork.
07:13Before I was born, Grand Mare made the blood packed with the spirits.
07:16I couldn't touch it.
07:17Absolutely not.
07:19Seeing me hesitate to pick up my silverware, Eleanor finally turned her gaze to me, dripping with disgust.
07:23But Adeline, eat.
07:26Stop being so dramatic.
07:27You married into this family.
07:29We don't cater to superstition here.
07:30Helpless, I looked at Damien, pinning my last shred of hope on him.
07:34At least, he used to understand me.
07:37He put a pastry-wrapped item onto my plate.
07:39The thoughtfulness in his tone gave me a fleeting glimpse of the man he used to be.
07:44It's not pork.
07:45It's mushroom.
07:46Try it.
07:47I didn't doubt him.
07:48I took a bite, but the moment my teeth sank, Tori's vicious laughter shattered the silence.
07:55Killed on Krynza's The Great.
07:58Oh my god, she actually ate it!
08:01I told you, there's no real spiritual vow.
08:05It's all an act, she just likes playing the victim.
08:09Damien lied to me.
08:11I stumbled to the bathroom, shoving my fingers deep down my throat.
08:16I wanted to purge that meat along with years of swallowed betrayals.
08:23Grand Mare, I'm sorry.
08:26Involuntary tears blurred my vision.
08:28Back before the mirror, I connected with my past self.
08:32This time, she remained silent for a very, very long time.
08:36Only then did she begin to recall a misty morning by the Louisiana Byron.
08:41Back then, Damien looked at me, his eyes shining like stars.
08:46I did my research.
08:48Your family doesn't eat pork, right?
08:54When we're together, I won't either.
08:56Not ever.
08:58But now?
08:59The me across the mirror was even more despairing than I am now.
09:03This isn't, this isn't what I wanted.
09:06She cried herself horsky, repeating over and over.
09:10It hurts.
09:12God, it hurts.
09:14Did it hurt?
09:16I was long past feeling it.
09:19My eyes burned dry.
09:22Damien vanished again for days.
09:25Damien vanished again for days.
09:28While I spent my days staring blankly at the mirror,
09:31I unexpectedly got a message from Luke, asking to meet.
09:35For a moment, I thought he'd come to pull me out.
09:43Addie, I'm so sorry.
09:46I think I've been set up again.
09:48They want three million, or they'll trigger a federal indictment.
09:51Hope shattered instantly.
09:53In its place was a bottomless helplessness.
09:57The previous five million had already nailed me to a pillar of shame.
10:00Selling myself for money.
10:03A slow death, day and night.
10:06How could I even open my mouth to Damien now?
10:10Lost and helpless.
10:13Fate's sick, absurd joke arrived in the form of two lines on a stick.
10:18I finally waited for Damien to come home.
10:22Three million.
10:24For the baby.
10:25Do we have a deal?
10:27My voice was so flat, it sounded foreign to me.
10:31His pupils contricted.
10:33The next second, he clamped his hand around my neck and slammed me against the wall.
10:37Suffocation hit me instantly.
10:39His eyes boiled with rage and unmasked hatred.
10:43When did you become this calculating?
10:45You'd sell your own child?
10:47Do you even have of a fucking heart?
10:52Was there ever a single shred of love between us, or was it always about the money?
10:56Love?
10:57Every bit of heart I had was ground into powder by his own hands during these eight years of humiliation.
11:02One gust of wind, and nothing remained.
11:04I ignored his explosion, staring fastly into his eyes.
11:08Love?
11:10Finally infuriated by my attitude, he hurled me onto the bed, tearing at my clothes regardless of my condition.
11:16It's yours!
11:18Damien!
11:18I'm pregnant!
11:19You can't...
11:21Struggling hard, I felt him hurl a signed check at my face.
11:25Fine.
11:25I'm buying the kid's life.
11:29He leaned in, his hot breath against my ear, every word piercing.
11:33Lose it or not, it's mine.
11:35Everything in this house is mine, including you.
11:43That night was a descent into hell.
11:47I woke up covered in bite marks and bruises.
11:51The pain between my legs made it almost impossible to stand.
11:55I dragged my shattered body to the hospital for an exam.
11:59The baby, it was still there, touching my still flat stomach.
12:04I felt a flicker of a bond for the first time.
12:08A few days later, Damien returned.
12:10I told him calmly,
12:11The baby's fine.
12:13I'll carry it to term.
12:14Your three million is accounted for.
12:17He froze, staring at my slightly bulging belly, lost in thought.
12:22Then, he violently smashed his whiskey glass onto the floor.
12:25The shattering crystal exploded with a deafening crack, shards flying everywhere.
12:29You cold bitch.
12:32He didn't even look at my feet as the glass punctured my skin.
12:36He simply turned and slammed the door.
12:41That night, I went to the mirror again, connecting with my past self.
12:46In the reflection, she shook her head, her voice broken.
12:51I don't want to spend the rest of my days like this.
12:54I don't want my baby born into this.
12:58Not into this.
13:00Listening to her repeated whispers, I suddenly felt that maybe everything could still change.
13:06Days after the three million was transferred, Luke asked to meet again.
13:10This time, he was sobbing, pounding his own head with his fists.
13:15Addy, I'm a piece of shit.
13:17Another million.
13:19I swear this is the last time-
13:21I stared at him blankly, unable to think of a single reason left to beg Damien.
13:27I waited for him to return, then stood before him.
13:30One more million.
13:32Name your terms.
13:34Damien shoved me aside and suddenly laughed.
13:37Tell me, what part of you is worth that much?
13:40Watching his back as the door slammed again, I knew he was done with me.
13:47But then Luke sent another video.
13:50Several men pinning him to the floor.
13:52A legal notice shoved against his face.
13:55A voice whispered in the footage.
13:58Sign it, or the indictment drops tomorrow.
14:04I had no choice but to call Damien over and over, pleading.
14:10Please.
14:12Name your price.
14:14I'll do anything.
14:16Then, I spent the whole night listening to the sounds of him and Tori.
14:20Not a single word of response.
14:25At dawn, I rushed to Luke's.
14:30He had collapsed on the apartment floor, his face ash gray, his breathing shallow.
14:39He used the last of his strength to grab my hand.
14:42Hattie, I should have told you to run when I had the chance.
14:49I just found out.
14:50The investment.
14:53It was all them.
14:56Eleanor.
14:57Every time.
14:58All of it.
14:59Even the documents that forced you into that marriage.
15:02I understood every word, yet combined they were a massacre.
15:06The Ashfords.
15:08All of it.
15:09Then what was the point of everything I endured for eight years?
15:19Let's go, let's go, let's go.
15:21I didn't even have time to process this crushing truth.
15:24The doctor informed me.
15:25Luke was in cardiac arrest due to prolonged high stress.
15:28Multi-organ failure.
15:29He was dying.
15:30Beneath the despair was a new layer of hopelessness.
15:33Damien appeared.
15:35Arm around Tori.
15:36Who had accidentally strained her waist in bed last morning.
15:41Eight years of suppressed hatred finally exploded.
15:45Something in me snapped.
15:46I lunged at him like a maniac, grabbing his collar, my entire body trembling violently.
15:51It was you!
15:52Your family set him up!
15:54All of it!
15:55What the hell are you talking about?
15:57I wouldn't stoop that low.
16:00Pointed at Luke, hanging by a thread in the ER.
16:03Stop pretending, Damien.
16:05Is there anything you wouldn't do?
16:07You played us both.
16:09Are you happy now?
16:10Damien's face darkened completely, his gaze ice cold.
16:14Remember, Addy, you brought this on yourself.
16:16He jerked his chin at the nearby doctors.
16:18Get Dr. Williams and his best team to the VIP suite.
16:21Ms. Hartwell's back needs immediate attention.
16:23As for the rest, they aren't worth this hospital's resources.
16:27One by one, the staff withdrew from Luke's bedside, ignoring my screams and pleas.
16:32The surgical team was reassigned.
16:34The vitals monitor shrieked with a rapid, frantic alarm.
16:39Soon, Luke's body gave one final commotion before falling into a dead silence.
16:50I collapsed to the floor in a heap, watching Damien's walk away with his arm around Tori.
16:57Damien's walk away with his arm around Tori.
16:58Damien's walk away with his arm around Tori.
16:59If I could start over, I would never choose this path again.
17:05Warm, thick liquid gushed out.
17:09Before losing consciousness, I struggled to crawl toward the mirror.
17:16The glass fogged.
17:18The connection was forged.
17:22I told my eight-year-old self,
17:25Leave him.
17:30I spoke with the hollow despair of the dying.
17:33We get to live again.
17:35She bit her lip until it bled, finally nodding.
17:39Okay.
17:44Maybe from a shred of conscience, or remembering I lost my brother and baby,
17:48he returned home unusually early.
17:50As he opened the door, a strange emptiness hit him.
17:53He hadn't processed what was missing yet, when Mrs. Patson brought him a cup of coffee.
17:57He took a sip and spit it out immediately, his brow frontaled.
18:01This is wrong.
18:03Tell Addie to make it.
18:05Mrs. Patterson looked blank.
18:07Addie?
18:09Sir, who is Addie?
18:10Damien's chest tightened for light of Hallwoolio,
18:13to a gentia de Ranta Boucher.
18:15He snapped impatiently.
18:17My wife, Addie.
18:20Mrs. Patterson looked even more confused.
18:23Sir, when were you married?
18:26We have no record of a Mrs. Ashford.
18:31Damien found it utterly absurd and summoned the entire household staff.
18:36The answers were chillingly identical.
18:38Everyone shook their heads and bewildered me.
18:40Sir, we truly don't know anyone by that name.
18:47Damien's stomach dropped.
18:49He turned back to the bedroom.
18:52Above the headboard used to hang a portrait I begged to paint after our wedding.
18:56At the time, he claimed he had no interest in doing it.
19:00But he never moved.
19:02But in reality, he had sat perfectly still for hours as my model.
19:06Now, the wall was completely bare.
19:08Why did the entire house feel so hollow, just like his chest?
19:11There must be a logical explanation.
19:14Instantly, a thought hijacked his mind.
19:16Addie had just run away to throw a tantrum.
19:28He grabbed his phone to confront me, only to find my contacts had vanished.
19:33As if I had never existed.
19:36Uncontrollable panic suffocated him.
19:38Something was terribly wrong.
19:45Mother, where is Addie?
19:47What did you do to her?
19:49Recognition finally hit Eleanor.
19:52Followed instantly by her elitist disgust.
19:56You broke up eight years ago.
19:58Why drag her up now?
20:01Broke up?
20:02Like something from a fever dream, Damien's pupils constricted violently.
20:07What are you talking about?
20:08We've been married for eight years!
20:10Eleanor frowned, dismissing his outburst as a childish tantric.
20:15Married, I would never have let you marry that swamp girl.
20:20If she hadn't left on her own, I had other ways.
20:24I always do.
20:25Damien stiffened, lashing onto that one detail,
20:29and demanded with blind fury.
20:32What did you just say?
20:33The investment fraud.
20:35That was you?
20:36Eleanor was startled by his near-manic state,
20:39realizing she had let it slip.
20:41Yes.
20:41So what?
20:43You've been broken up for eight years.
20:45What does it matter now?
20:46The belated truth drained him.
20:48He staggered back.
20:49I was telling the truth.
20:52It was like the Asherds.
20:53His mother had really set my brother up.
20:55She made him play the victim.
20:59Torturing me for eight years.
21:01But before all of that,
21:03we had loved each other so purely.
21:06He was consumed by hate.
21:08Wasn't I?
21:10He was consumed by hate.
21:13Wasn't I?
21:14You played us both.
21:15Are you happy now?
21:17My horse cries.
21:19My despairing eyes.
21:20The blinding blood beneath.
21:22Like a returning blade.
21:23They pierced his chest.
21:25His head nearly exploded.
21:26Unfamiliar men fragments flooded in.
21:30We're done, Damien.
21:33Why?
21:34Tell me what I did wrong.
21:36I'll fix it.
21:37His head nearly exploded.
21:38Unfamiliar memories fragments.
21:41How can you be this cruel?
21:44Don't you love me anymore?
21:47It was eight agonizing years.
21:49Without me.
21:52Addy.
21:53No.
21:55It wasn't like this.
21:57Addy.
21:58Addy!
22:00The chaotic memories tore Damien apart.
22:04Clutching his head in agony,
22:06he collapsed.
22:08I opened my eyes again,
22:10and vivid memories flooded in.
22:13The raised porch.
22:14The moss-draped oaks.
22:17Seeing this familiar yet foreign buy-in,
22:20I knew my past self succeeded.
22:24She had truly rewritten our fate,
22:28one entirely without Damien Ashfield.
22:33As I was lost in thought,
22:35Ethan leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
22:39Addy.
22:39Time to get up for breakfast.
22:41This sudden intimacy startled me,
22:43but the surging memories instantly eased the awkwardness.
22:46The memories told me that eight years ago,
22:49I successfully prevented Luke from falling into Eleanor's financial trap again.
22:53Afterward,
22:54even though I chose to break up with Damien,
22:56I suffered through a long period of brutal withdrawal,
22:59pain,
23:00confusion,
23:01and a hollow ache in my chest in the dead of night,
23:05and Damien's relentless pursuit.
23:07Addy, what did I do wrong?
23:10I can change.
23:12Please don't do this.
23:13But I knew if I turned back,
23:14all that awaited us was repeating the same mistakes,
23:17the endless humiliation and despair of that future.
23:20I erased all his contacts.
23:22Did it hurt?
23:24Yes.
23:24I would still remember his bright eyes by the bayou,
23:27and his earnest profile when he promised to spend every New Year's Eve with me.
23:32But looking at my brother alive and well today,
23:35I knew my choice was right.
23:39I survived those agonizing days and nights,
23:42alone.
23:45Until I met Ethan Callowin.
23:48Ethan was a documentary photographer shooting in the bayou.
23:53He hired me as his local guide,
23:55and then became a regular.
23:58He never asked questions.
24:03Mist always lifts.
24:04So does the past.
24:09He was patient in a way I'd never known.
24:12When he later started pursuing me,
24:14I pulled away, terrified of repeating the past.
24:17He just smiled and said,
24:20That's okay.
24:22You don't have to change a thing for me.
24:24He relocated his city studio to a small town near the bayou.
24:31Knowing my love for this land,
24:33he even helped me open
24:35Fontenot Heritage Tours and Gallery.
24:39With steady patience and sincerity,
24:42he waited for me to step out of the shadows on my own.
24:47Recalling these fresh memories,
24:49my tears spilled.
24:53Babe, why are you crying?
24:56Startled,
24:57Ethan's face filled with concern.
25:00Was it my cooking?
25:01Be honest.
25:03Seeing his nervous,
25:05poupy look,
25:06I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
25:08No.
25:10I just had a nightmare.
25:12A really, really long one.
25:15He exhaled in relief
25:17and pulled me into his embrace.
25:20I'll handle the client meeting.
25:22Stay home today.
25:26I was no longer the dependent Mrs. Ashvind
25:28waiting around at home for an allowance.
25:31I went to the office anyway.
25:33After all,
25:34I had woken up from the nightmare.
25:40But I never expected fate
25:41to have such a sick sense of humor.
25:49That so-called big client
25:51was none other than Damien Ashford.
25:55Honestly,
25:56I could barely tell
25:57if it had only been a few days
25:59since I last saw him
26:00or if it had truly been eight years.
26:05The moment he saw me,
26:07he lunged forward,
26:08crushing me into his arms.
26:11His grip was suffocating.
26:13Addie,
26:14I finally found you.
26:16I...
26:17His relieved voice rang above my head.
26:21I froze in place.
26:24Before I'd react,
26:25Ethan stepped in
26:26and ripped him away.
26:28Take your hands off my wife.
26:30Now.
26:32Damien acted like he hadn't heard
26:34or simply didn't care.
26:36He just stared fixically at me.
26:38She's my wife!
26:40Mine!
26:43He frantically tried to grab my hand again.
26:47Come home with me, Eddie.
26:49Please.
26:50Come home.
26:57I knew Damien remembered everything
26:59from those eight years,
27:00just like I did.
27:03But since everything had started over,
27:05with a new life right in front of me,
27:08why dig up that unbearable past?
27:12I took a deep breath,
27:14meeting Damien's chaotic, manic gaze.
27:16My voice was dead calm.
27:18We ended eight years ago.
27:21You don't remember?
27:22The ecstasy,
27:23pleading,
27:24and agony on his face
27:25all turned to stone,
27:27leaving nothing but a hollow,
27:28blank stare.
27:29Addie,
27:30what are you talking about?
27:31He forced a smile
27:32that was more of a sob,
27:34his voice trembling.
27:35Are you misremembering?
27:36We didn't break up.
27:37We've been married for eight years.
27:38I'm sorry.
27:40I know I was a monster.
27:41I know I hurt you.
27:42He rambled incoherently,
27:44desperate to awaken something.
27:46Do you remember?
27:47Our first year of marriage,
27:48you secretly learning
27:49to make crawfish etouffee
27:50in the kitchen?
27:51And when my stomach acted up,
27:52you brewing me the herbal tea
27:53Grandmira taught you.
27:55He buried the unbearable memories,
27:57as if silence could erase the pain,
27:59completely ignoring Tidding
28:00that everything he listed
28:01was nothing but my one-in devotion to him,
28:04until his voice choked up,
28:06heavy with immense agony and remorse.
28:08That day your brother died,
28:09in the hospital.
28:11I...
28:12Right then,
28:14Luke walked in through the door.
28:15Seeing Luke alive,
28:16terror and a reality-shattering chaos
28:19flooded Damien's eyes.
28:20He haunted me,
28:21not like a ghost,
28:22but like something that refused to die.
28:25No longer manic,
28:26he became stubbornly confiscated.
28:28He cornered me,
28:29his voice Hosky.
28:30I can't tell what's real anymore.
28:32What's a dream
28:33and what actually happened.
28:34Images of you,
28:36eight years ago today.
28:39It's all bleeding together.
28:41Genuine agony on his face
28:42on his prized me.
28:43The Damien I knew only depised me.
28:45How could he look so broken?
28:48Finally,
28:48he spotted a painting in my gallery
28:50mirroring the portrait
28:51I once painted of him.
28:52He seized my wrist,
28:54his emotions flaring.
28:56You remember,
28:56you remember everything,
28:57don't you?
28:58I calmly pushed him away,
28:59putting space between us.
29:01Mr. Ashford,
29:02if this past you keep obsessing with
29:03is real,
29:04then tell me,
29:05what exactly did you do to me?
29:08And why would I leave?
29:09The question seemed to choke him.
29:11He couldn't utter a single word.
29:14After all,
29:15he had deliberately ignored
29:16and buried that bloody reality.
29:18How could he ever admit it out loud?
29:20After that day,
29:21Damien stopped houncing me
29:22about whether I remembered.
29:24He slipped into the heritage tours I led
29:26and infiltrated the small town's
29:28Mardi Gras celebration.
29:29He'd rush to carry my guest's luggage
29:31or hand me a bottle of water mid-tour.
29:33When the bayou boardwalk grew slippery,
29:36he'd instinctively reach out to steady me.
29:39How pathetic.
29:40What was the point of this now?
29:42Did he think cheap devotion
29:43could erase the past and drag me back?
29:45No, never again.
29:47I believed as long as I stood firm,
29:49our fate was permanently rewritten.
29:51Until that afternoon,
29:52pale as death,
29:53Luke resurrected my nightmare.
29:55Addie,
29:56I messed up.
29:58I...
29:58I think I've been trapped again.
30:01Five million.
30:03Ice flooded my veins.
30:05Fatalistic despair hit me.
30:07Dazed,
30:07I saw my pathetic past self begging again.
30:10I stumbled backward,
30:11only to fall into a warm,
30:13solid chest.
30:14Ethan was back from his trip.
30:16I'm here.
30:17I've got you.
30:18His warmth snapped me back.
30:20I was no longer the Addie
30:22who only knew how to cry
30:23and suffer in silence.
30:24So,
30:25when Damien cornered me
30:26at the gallery again,
30:27holding my old favorite,
30:28Cafรฉ du Mondo Beno's,
30:30he said,
30:31eager to please.
30:32I've made up my mind.
30:33Whether you remember or not,
30:34I want to start over.
30:35With you.
30:36I didn't just knock the bag away.
30:40I slapped him.
30:43Damien Ashford,
30:44you disgust me.
30:46Instead of flying into a rage,
30:48Damien let his emotions flare.
30:50You hit me.
30:51You do remember.
30:52You remember everything.
30:53Near ecstasy flashed across his face
30:55as if my slap wasn't discussed.
30:57Yes.
30:58I never forgot.
30:59Not a single thing you did to me.
31:03I wanted to run as far from you as possible.
31:06I took a step closer,
31:08staring into his suddenly constricted pupils.
31:11But I couldn't escape you.
31:13While you were playing the devoted ex,
31:14your family was setting my brother up
31:16for five million again.
31:17How despicable can you be,
31:19Damien Ashford?
31:20The blood drained entirely from Damien's face.
31:23It wasn't me.
31:24I swear to God,
31:25it wasn't me.
31:26He shook his head frantically,
31:28rambling his defense.
31:30I just found out.
31:33It was my mother.
31:35It was all her.
31:37Trust me,
31:37we loved each other.
31:38I didn't want to become...
31:40that.
31:42His voice choked,
31:43eyes full of genuine panic and chaos.
31:46But even if it really wasn't him,
31:48so what?
31:49The agony he caused.
31:50My unborn baby.
31:52It was all real.
31:52I looked at him again.
31:53His shoulders were shaking with sobs.
31:55This was probably the second time
31:57I had ever seen him cry.
31:58The first was in that vanished timeline.
32:01Leaving Louisiana
32:02and moving to Boston with him.
32:04Trust me.
32:05I'll never make you regret this.
32:08Those tears were scalding.
32:10Pure, boyly sincerity.
32:11But his tears now felt like a sick joke.
32:14Your distrust.
32:15Your cruelty.
32:16Did your mother hold a gun to your head for that too?
32:18Stop trying to absolve yourself, Damien.
32:20Your regret changes nothing.
32:22It's worthless to me now.
32:24But Damien wasn't even listening.
32:25He just kept repeating.
32:27It was her.
32:30It was her.
32:32After that day,
32:33I thought Damien would finally give up
32:35and vanish for good.
32:37Unexpectedly,
32:38a few days later,
32:39he half-dragged Eleanor right in front of me.
32:42Tell her!
32:43Tell her what you did!
32:44Damien's eyes were crazed,
32:46pressuring her hysterically.
32:48You set up the fraud!
32:50You trapped her brother!
32:52Twice!
32:52Terrified by Damien's near-psychoconic state,
32:55Eleanor's voice trembled.
32:57Yes, I did it eight years ago,
32:59and I did it again last week.
33:01But that's all I did.
33:03I never killed anyone!
33:04Watching them tear each other apart,
33:06I knew that in this timeline,
33:07this was all she did.
33:08But in that vanished timeline,
33:10the hell I endured.
33:11Eleanor's hands were soaked in blood.
33:13I don't care!
33:15Damien glared at Eleanor,
33:16then looked pleadingly at me.
33:18Darting back and forth,
33:19he snapped.
33:20Get on your knees!
33:22Apologize to her!
33:23If you apologize,
33:24she'll forgive me.
33:25We can go back to how it was.
33:28Watching her son's madness,
33:30Eleanor finally broke down in tears.
33:32I was wrong, okay?
33:34Come home with me.
33:36I'll find you a doctor.
33:37Not to me!
33:39To her!
33:39With a violent roar,
33:41Damien yanked Eleanor's arm,
33:43forcing her down at my feet.
33:45Just then,
33:46Ethan stepped in.
33:47He subdued Damien from behind,
33:49pinning him to the ground
33:50with a swift chokehold.
33:51I called 911.
33:53The world instantly fell silent.
33:55In the fading twilight,
33:56only Eleanor's muffled sobs
33:58and approaching sirens.
33:59The next time I heard about Damien
34:01was a year later.
34:02At my prenatal checkup with Ethan,
34:04passing the psych ward,
34:06I overheard nurses whispering.
34:07The Ashford heir,
34:08apparently he attacked his own mother
34:10before they brought him in.
34:11She almost didn't make it.
34:12He keeps repeating some girl's name.
34:14Ethan squeezed my hand
34:16and asked softly,
34:17Do you want to go in?
34:19I shook my head.
34:20There was no need.
34:21Honestly,
34:21I wasn't surprised by Damien
34:23and Eleanor's fate,
34:24much less felt any satisfaction.
34:26Mostly,
34:26it was just a quiet sigh.
34:28This was supposed to be
34:29a clean break,
34:30a new start.
34:31Instead,
34:32he locked himself
34:33inside his own guilt.
34:34Later,
34:35I got a call.
34:38The hospital needed me
34:40to handle Damien Ashford's
34:41final arrangements.
34:42At first,
34:43I wanted to refuse,
34:45but the hospital informed me
34:46I was his only emergency contact.
34:48I gripped my phone,
34:50stunned for a long time.
34:51In the end,
34:52I went,
34:53in the morgue.
34:54He lay there.
34:55His face was peaceful,
34:57even showing a relieved
34:58sort of ease.
34:59I looked at him,
35:01unsure how to feel.
35:02The doctor handed me
35:04a USB drive
35:05with his ward surveillance footage,
35:06suggesting I watch it.
35:08In the footage,
35:09Damien sometimes whispered
35:11tenderly to the air.
35:12Addy, look.
35:13I drew this today.
35:15Does it look like
35:16that morning by the bio?
35:17Other times,
35:18he abruptly shattered.
35:20Kneeling before the freezing wall,
35:22he sobbed his confession.
35:25Addy, I was wrong.
35:27I'll cut my heart out
35:28and show you.
35:29Just look at me.
35:31Please,
35:31just look at me.
35:33Mostly,
35:33he curled in the corner,
35:34his nails gouging one name
35:36over and over
35:37into the plaster.
35:39Addy,
35:39more frantic,
35:41more twisted,
35:42like his last shreds
35:43of sanity splintering away.
35:45That day,
35:46he was unusually calm.
35:48He slowly stepped
35:50under the camera,
35:51staring endlessly
35:52as if piercing the screen
35:53to see me.
35:55Finally,
35:56he smiled,
35:57a clean smile,
35:58echoing the boyishness
35:59I remembered.
36:01He said,
36:02you've changed.
36:04You're not her anymore,
36:05not the Addy I remember.
36:07I'm going to find her,
36:08the real her.
36:09She's still out there somewhere.
36:11Then,
36:11he returned to his bed
36:13and lay down quietly.
36:16He never got up again.
36:22After watching the footage,
36:23my tears fell,
36:24not for love,
36:25nor for the dead,
36:27but for two souls
36:28across parallel timelines,
36:30truly in love,
36:31yet doomed to ruin,
36:32for this absurd,
36:34brutal point of return.
36:35I cried for a long time,
36:38for everything,
36:39as a final farewell.
36:41Ethan stayed quietly by my side,
36:44saying nothing.
36:46He simply let his steady heartbeat
36:48tell me he was there.
36:50After settling Damien's final affairs,
36:53we walked out of the cemetery
36:54into perfect sunlight.
36:57Ethan's palm rested gently
36:59on my swollen pregnant belly.
37:01Inside,
37:02a little life thrived,
37:04promising a brand new hope.
37:06I turned back one last time,
37:08glancing at Damien Ashford's tombstone.
37:12Then,
37:13gripping the hand of the man beside me,
37:15I walked step by step
37:17into a future that was ours alone.
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