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(2026) - FULL ENGSUB | Reelshort Hot HD
Full Chinese Movie EngSub
Chinese Drama English Sub Full HD
#shortdrama #bestdrama #actionmovie #Drama #Film #Show #Anime #Movie #cdrama #Movies #BILLIONAIRE #shortdrama #dramashort #shortfilmdrama #minidrama #shortstorydrama #webdrama #indiedrama #shortfilmseries #shortdramaseries #dramashorts #englishmovie #cdrama #drama #movieshortfull
#BillionaireObsession #VirginAuction #MrDelaney #AlphaRomance #DarkDesire #SoldToHim #DailymotionDrama
#goodfilms romance #bestfilmromance #romance #filmromance #drama romance
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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!
00:41He'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.
01:55Where 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.
02:41Back from a freezing half-hour walk, I overheard two maids whispering.
02:45Poor Addie.
02:46Eight years here, and she's treated worse than the help.
02:49Well, 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.
03:14Don't worry.
03:14I'll handle my mother.
03:17Later, my brother Luke in New Orleans, who always avoided risks,
03:20was suddenly pulled into a massive financial scam.
03:23Cornered, 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,
03:49thinking 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.
03:59Never 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?
04:11Fine.
04:12Pay back that five million, with interest.
04:15Or my lawyers reopen your brother's case, and he never sees daylight again.
04:20Luke was out of reach.
04:22This debt was permanently chained to me.
04:26Damien 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.
04:35She's too tight.
04:36Couldn'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.
04:45Want to stay and join?
04:46But from behind, his tone was amused.
04:49Unable to hold it, I rushed to the bathroom, vomiting until my vision darkened.
04:53Back before the mirror, reconnecting with myself eight years ago, I asked,
04:57Do you think he still loves you?
05:00She cried, still in disbelief.
05:02He said it was only me.
05:04He promised.
05:05Without living this eight-year hell, words were useless.
05:10Like 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.
05:21When I woke up on New Year's Day, the woman from last night was already gone, but a pair
05:26of 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.
05:43There 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
05:50ass.
05:51His words pierced me, shame flooding my veins.
05:57He shoved me away coldly.
05:59Enough.
05:59We 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.
06:23The perfect old money match Eleanor had chosen for Damien years ago.
06:26Eleanor patted Tori's hand, her eyes gleaming with undisguised satisfaction.
06:30Sweetheart, if it weren't for that girl, you'd have been an Ashton years ago.
06:36Damien walked over with a knowing smirk.
06:39I'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.
07:18Absolutely not.
07:19Seeing me hesitate to pick up my silverware, Eleanor finally turned her gaze to me, dripping with disgust.
07:24Adeline, 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.
07:40The thoughtfulness in his tone gave me a fleeting glimpse of the man he used to be.
07:43It's not pork.
07:45It's mushroom.
07:46Try it.
07:47I didn't doubt him.
07:48I took a bite.
07:49But the moment my teeth sank, Tori's vicious laughter shattered the silence.
07:55Killed on Krynze's the Great.
07:59Oh my god, she actually ate it!
08:02I told you, there's no real spiritual vow.
08:06It'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.
08:17I wanted to purge that meat along with years of swallowed betrayals.
08:23Grand Mare, I'm sorry.
08:26Involuntary tears blurred my vision.
08:29Back 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.
08:42Back then, Damien looked at me, his eyes shining like stars.
08:47I 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?
09:00The me across the mirror was even more despairing than I am now.
09:03This isn't...
09:04This isn't what I wanted.
09:06She cried herself horsky, repeating over and over.
09:11It hurts.
09:12God, it hurts.
09:14Did it hurt?
09:16I was long past feeling it.
09:20My eyes burned dry.
09:23Damien vanished again for days.
09:26Damien 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.
09:43Addy, 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.
09:52Hope shattered instantly.
09:54In its place was a bottomless helplessness.
09:57The previous five million had already nailed me to a pillar of shame,
10:01selling myself for money.
10:03A slow death, day and night.
10:06How could I even open my mouth to Damien now?
10:11Lost and helpless.
10:14Fate's sick, absurd joke arrived in the form of two lines on a stick.
10:19I 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.
10:32His pupils contricted.
10:33The next second, he clamped his hand around my neck and slammed me against the wall.
10:38Suffocation hit me instantly.
10:40His eyes boiled with rage and unmasked hatred.
10:44When did you become this calculating?
10:46You'd sell your own child?
10:48Do 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?
10:57Love?
10:58Every bit of heart I had was ground into powder by his own hands during these eight years of humiliation.
11:03One gust of wind and nothing remained.
11:05I ignored his explosion, staring fastly into his eyes.
11:09Love?
11:11Finally infuriated by my attitude, he hurled me onto the bed, tearing at my clothes regardless of my condition.
11:17It's yours!
11:18Damien!
11:19I'm pregnant!
11:20You can't...
11:22Struggling hard, I felt him hurl a signed check at my face.
11:25Fine.
11:26I'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.
11:48I woke up covered in bite marks and bruises.
11:51The pain between my legs made it almost impossible to stand.
11:56I dragged my shattered body to the hospital for an exam.
11:59The baby, it was still there, touching my still flat stomach.
12:05I felt a flicker of a bond for the first time.
12:08A few days later, Damien returned.
12:11I told him calmly,
12:12The baby's fine.
12:13I'll carry it to term.
12:15Your three million is accounted for.
12:18He froze, staring at my slightly bulging belly, lost in thought.
12:23Then, he violently smashed his whiskey glass onto the floor.
12:26The shattering crystal exploded with a deafening crack, shards flying everywhere.
12:30You 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.
12:42That night, I went to the mirror again, connecting with my past self.
12:47In the reflection, she shook her head, her voice broken.
12:52I don't want to spend the rest of my days like this.
12:55I 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.
13:11This time, he was sobbing, pounding his own head with his fists.
13:15Addy, I'm a piece of shit.
13:18Another million.
13:20I swear this is the last time-
13:22I 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.
13:31One 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.
13:48But then Luke sent another video.
13:50Several men pinning him to the floor.
13:53A legal notice shoved against his face.
13:56A voice whispered in the footage.
13:59Sign it, or the indictment drops tomorrow.
14:05I had no choice but to call Damien over and over, pleading.
14:10Please.
14:13Name your price.
14:15I'll do anything.
14:17Then, I spent the whole night listening to the sounds of him and Tori.
14:21Not a single word of response.
14:26At dawn, I rushed to Luke's.
14:31He had collapsed on the apartment floor.
14:40He used the last of his strength to grab my hand.
14:43Hattie.
14:45I should have told you to run when I had the chance.
14:49I just found out.
14:51The investment.
14:53It was all them.
14:57Eleanor.
14:58Every time, all of it.
15:00Even the documents that forced you into that marriage.
15:03I understood every word, yet combined, they were a massacre.
15:07The Ashfords?
15:09All of it?
15:10Then what was the point of everything I endured for eight years?
15:20Let'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.
15:26Luke was in cardiac arrest due to prolonged high stress.
15:28Multi-organ failure.
15:30He was dying.
15:31Beneath the despair was a new layer of hopelessness.
15:34Damien appeared, arm around Tori, who had accidentally strained her waist in bed last morning.
15:41Eight years of suppressed hatred finally exploded.
15:45Something in me snapped.
15:47I lunged at him like a maniac, grabbing his collar, my entire body trembling violently.
15:52It was you!
15:53Your family set him up!
15:55All of it!
15:56What the hell are you talking about?
15:58I wouldn't stoop that low.
16:01Pointed at Luke, hanging by a thread in the ER.
16:04Stop pretending, Damien.
16:05Is there anything you wouldn't do?
16:08You played us both.
16:09Are you happy now?
16:11Damien's face darkened completely, his gaze ice cold.
16:14Remember, Addy, you brought this on yourself.
16:17He jerked his chin at the nearby doctors.
16:19Get Dr. Williams and his best team to the VIP suite.
16:22Ms. 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.
16:35The vitals monitor shrieked with a rapid, frantic alarm.
16:39Soon, Luke's body gave one final commotion before falling into a dead silence.
16:51I collapsed to the floor in a heap, watching Damien's walk away with his arm around Tori.
16:57Damien's ash frilled.
17:00If I could start over, I would never choose this path again.
17:06Warm, thick liquid gushed out.
17:10Before losing consciousness, I struggled to crawl toward the mirror.
17:17The glass fogged.
17:18The connection was forged.
17:23I told my eight-year-old self, leave him.
17:30I spoke with the hollow despair of the dying.
17:33We get to live again.
17:36She bit her lip until it bled, finally nodding.
17:40Okay.
17:45Maybe from a shred of conscience, or remembering I lost my brother and baby, he returned home unusually early.
17:51As he opened the door, a strange emptiness hit him.
17:54He hadn't processed what was missing yet, when Mrs. Patson brought him a cup of coffee.
17:58He took a sip and spit it out immediately, his brow frontaled.
18:02This is wrong.
18:04Tell Addie to make it.
18:05Mrs. Patterson looked blank.
18:08Addie?
18:09Sir, who is Addie?
18:11Damien's chest tightened for light of Halwu Leo, to a gentian to Ranta Boucher.
18:16He snapped impatiently.
18:17My wife, Addie.
18:21Mrs. Packerson looked even more confused.
18:24Sir, when were you married?
18:26We have no record of a Mrs. Ashford.
18:32Damien found it utterly absurd and summoned the entire household staff.
18:36The answers were chillingly identical.
18:39Everyone shook their heads and bewildered me.
18:41Sir, we truly don't know anyone by that name.
18:48Damien'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.
18:57At the time, he claimed he had no interest in doing it.
19:01But he never moved.
19:02But in reality, he had sat perfectly still for hours as my model.
19:07Now, the wall was completely bare.
19:09Why did the entire house feel so hollow, just like his chest?
19:12There must be a logical explanation.
19:15Instantly, a thought hijacked his mind.
19:17Addie had just run away to throw a tantrum.
19:20Where could she go?
19:22Her brother is dead.
19:24The baby is gone.
19:25She has absolutely nothing.
19:29He grabbed his phone to confront me, only to find my contacts had vanished.
19:34As if I had never existed.
19:37Uncontrollable panic suffocated him.
19:39Something was terribly wrong.
19:45Mother!
19:46Where is Addie?
19:47What did you do to her?
19:50Recognition finally hit Eleanor, followed instantly by her elitist disgust.
19:57You broke up eight years ago.
19:59Why drag her up now?
20:02Broke up?
20:03Like something from a fever dream, Damien's pupils constricted violently.
20:08What are you talking about?
20:09We've been married for eight years!
20:11Eleanor frowned, dismissing his outburst as a childish tantric.
20:16Married, I would never have let you marry that swamp girl.
20:20If she hadn't left on her own, I had other ways.
20:25I always do.
20:27Damien stiffened, lashing onto that one detail, and demanded with blind fury.
20:33What did you just say?
20:35The investment fraud.
20:36That was you?
20:37Eleanor was startled by his near-manic state, realizing she had let it slip.
20:42Yes.
20:42So what?
20:44You've been broken up for eight years.
20:45What does it matter now?
20:47The belated truth drained him.
20:49He staggered back.
20:50I was telling the truth.
20:53It was the Asherds.
20:54His mother had really set my brother up.
20:57She made him play the victim.
21:00Torturing me for eight years.
21:02But before all of that, we had loved each other so purely.
21:07He was consumed by hate.
21:09Wasn't I?
21:11He was consumed by hate.
21:14Wasn't I?
21:15You played us both.
21:16Are you happy now?
21:18My horse cries.
21:20My despairing eyes.
21:21The blinding blood beneath.
21:23Like a returning blade.
21:24They pierced his chest.
21:26His head nearly exploded.
21:28Unfamiliar men fragments flooded in.
21:32We're done, Damien.
21:34Why?
21:35Tell me what I did wrong.
21:37I'll fix it.
21:38His head nearly exploded.
21:39Unfamiliar memories fragments.
21:42How can you be this cruel?
21:45Don't you love me anymore?
21:46It was eight agonizing years without me.
21:53Addy.
21:54No.
21:56It wasn't like this.
21:58Addy.
21:59Addy!
22:01The chaotic memories tore Damien apart.
22:05Clutching his head in agony, he collapsed.
22:09I opened my eyes again, and vivid memories flooded in.
22:14The raised porch.
22:15The moss-draped oaks.
22:18Seeing this familiar yet foreign buy-in, I knew my past self succeeded.
22:25She had truly rewritten our fate, one entirely without Damien Ashfield.
22:34As I was lost in thought, Ethan leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
22:40Addy.
22:40Time to get up for breakfast.
22:42This sudden intimacy startled me, but the surging memories instantly eased the awkwardness.
22:48The memories told me that eight years ago, I successfully prevented Luke from falling into Eleanor's financial trap again.
22:54Afterward, even though I chose to break up with Damien, I suffered through a long period of brutal withdrawal.
23:01Pain, confusion, and a hollow ache in my chest in the dead of night.
23:06And Damien's relentless pursuit.
23:08Addy, what did I do wrong?
23:11I can change.
23:13Please don't do this.
23:14But I knew if I turned back, all that awaited us was repeating the same mistakes.
23:18The endless humiliation and despair of that future.
23:21I erased all his contacts.
23:23Did it hurt?
23:25Yes.
23:26I would still remember his bright eyes by the bayou, and his earnest profile when he promised to spend every
23:31New Year's Eve with me.
23:33But looking at my brother alive and well today, I knew my choice was right.
23:40I survived those agonizing days and nights, alone.
23:46Until I met Ethan Callowin.
23:50Ethan was a documentary photographer shooting in the bayou.
23:54He hired me as his local guide, and then became a regular.
23:59He never asked questions.
24:04Mist always lifts.
24:05So does the past.
24:10He was patient in a way I'd never known.
24:13When he later started pursuing me, I pulled away, terrified of repeating the past.
24:18He just smiled and said,
24:21That's okay.
24:23You don't have to change a thing for me.
24:26He relocated his city studio to a small town near the bayou.
24:32Knowing my love for this land, he even helped me open Fontenot Heritage Tours and Gallery.
24:40With steady patience and sincerity, he waited for me to step out of the shadows on my own.
24:48Recalling these fresh memories, my tears spilled.
24:54Babe, why are you crying?
24:57Startled, Ethan's face filled with concern.
25:01Was it my cooking?
25:02Be honest?
25:04Seeing his nervous, poupy look, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
25:09No.
25:11I just had a nightmare.
25:13A really, really long one.
25:16He exhaled in relief and pulled me into his embrace.
25:21I'll handle the client meeting.
25:23Stay home today.
25:27I was no longer the dependent Mrs. Ashvind waiting around at home for an allowance.
25:32I went to the office anyway.
25:35After all, I had woken up from the nightmare.
25:41But I never expected fate to have such a sick sense of humor.
25:50That so-called big client was none other than Damien Ashford.
25:56Honestly, I could barely tell if it had only been a few days since I last saw him,
26:01or if it had truly been eight years.
26:06The moment he saw me, he lunged forward, crushing me into his arms.
26:12His grip was suffocating.
26:14Addie, I finally found you, I...
26:18His relieved voice rang above my head.
26:22I froze in place.
26:25Before I'd react, Ethan stepped in and ripped him away.
26:29Take your hands off my wife.
26:32Now.
26:33Damien acted like he hadn't heard, or simply didn't care.
26:37He just stared fixically at me.
26:40She's my wife!
26:41Mine!
26:44He frantically tried to grab my hand again.
26:48Come home with me, Eddie.
26:51Please.
26:52Come home.
26:58I knew Damien remembered everything from those eight years, just like I did.
27:04But since everything had started over, with a new life right in front of me,
27:09why dig up that unbearable past?
27:13I took a deep breath, meeting Damien's chaotic, manic gaze.
27:18My voice was dead calm.
27:20We ended eight years ago.
27:22You don't remember?
27:23The ecstasy, pleading, and agony on his face all turned to stone, leaving nothing but a hollow, blank stare.
27:31Addie, what are you talking about?
27:32He forced a smile that was more of a sob, his voice trembling.
27:36Are you misremembering?
27:37We didn't break up.
27:38We've been married for eight years.
27:40I'm sorry.
27:41I know I was a monster.
27:42I know I hurt you.
27:44He rambled incoherently, desperate to awaken something.
27:47Do you remember?
27:48Our first year of marriage, you secretly learning to make crawfish etouffee in the kitchen?
27:52And when my stomach acted up, you brewing me the herbal tea Grandmira taught you.
27:56He buried the unbearable memories, as if silence could erase the pain.
28:00Completely ignoring Tidding that everything he listed was nothing but my one-in devotion to him.
28:05Until his voice choked up, heavy with immense agony and remorse.
28:09That day your brother died.
28:11In the hospital.
28:13I...
28:14Right then, Luke walked in through the door.
28:17Seeing Luke alive, terror and a reality-shattering chaos flooded Damien's eyes.
28:21He haunted me, not like a ghost, but like something that refused to die.
28:26No longer manic, he became stubbornly confiscated.
28:29He cornered me, his voice husky.
28:32I can't tell what's real anymore.
28:33What's a dream and what actually happened.
28:36Images of you.
28:37Eight years ago, today.
28:40It's all bleeding together.
28:42Genuine agony on his face on his prized me.
28:44The Damien I knew only depised me.
28:46How could he look so broken?
28:49Finally, he spotted a painting in my gallery mirroring the portrait I once painted of him.
28:54He seized my wrist, his emotions flaring.
28:56You remember.
28:58You remember everything, don't you?
28:59I calmly pushed him away, putting space between us.
29:02Mr. Ashford, if this past you keep obsessing with is real, then tell me.
29:07What exactly did you do to me?
29:09And why would I leave?
29:11The question seemed to choke him.
29:13He couldn't utter a single word.
29:15After all, he had deliberately ignored and buried that bloody reality.
29:20How could he ever admit it out loud?
29:21After that day, Damien stopped hounsing me about whether I remembered.
29:25He slipped into the heritage tours I led and infiltrated the small town's Mardi Gras celebration.
29:30He'd rush to carry my guest's luggage or hand me a bottle of water mid-tour.
29:35When the bayou boardwalk grew slippery, he'd instinctively reach out to steady me.
29:40How pathetic.
29:41What was the point of this now?
29:43Did he think cheap devotion could erase the past and drag me back?
29:46No, never again.
29:48I believed as long as I stood firm, our fate was permanently rewritten.
29:52Until that afternoon, pale as death, Luke resurrected my nightmare.
29:57Addie, I messed up.
29:59I...
30:00I think I've been trapped again.
30:03Five million.
30:04Ice flooded my veins.
30:06Fatalistic despair hit me.
30:08Dazed, I saw my pathetic past self begging again.
30:11I stumbled backward, only to fall into a warm, solid chest.
30:15Ethan was back from his trip.
30:18I'm here.
30:18I've got you.
30:20His warmth snapped me back.
30:21I was no longer the Addie who only knew how to cry and suffer in silence.
30:26So, when Damien cornered me at the gallery again, holding my old favorite, CafΓ© du Mondo
30:31Benos, he said, eager to please.
30:33I've made up my mind.
30:34Whether you remember or not, I want to start over.
30:36With you.
30:37I didn't just knock the bag away.
30:42I slapped him.
30:44Damien Ashford, you disgust me.
30:48Instead of flying into a rage, Damien let his emotions flare.
30:52You hit me.
30:52You do remember.
30:53You remember everything.
30:55Near ecstasy flashed across his face, as if my slap wasn't disgust.
30:59Yes.
30:59I never forgot.
31:01Not a single thing you did to me.
31:04I wanted to run as far from you as possible.
31:07I took a step closer, staring into his suddenly, constricted pupils.
31:12But I couldn't escape you.
31:14While you were playing the devoted ex, your family was setting my brother up for five million
31:18again.
31:19How despicable can you be, Damien Ashford?
31:22The blood drained entirely from Damien's face.
31:24It wasn't me.
31:26I swear to God, it wasn't me.
31:28He shook his head frantically, rambling his defense.
31:32I just found out.
31:35It was my mother.
31:36It was all her.
31:38Trust me, we loved each other.
31:40I didn't want to become...
31:42That.
31:43His voice choked.
31:45Eyes full of genuine panic and chaos.
31:47But even if it really wasn't him, so what?
31:50The agony he caused.
31:52My unborn baby.
31:53It was all real.
31:54I looked at him again.
31:55His shoulders were shaking with sobs.
31:57This was probably the second time I had ever seen him cry.
32:00The first was in that vanished timeline.
32:02Leaving Louisiana and moving to Boston with him.
32:05Trust me.
32:07I'll never make you regret this.
32:09Those tears were scalding.
32:11Pure, boyly sincerity.
32:13But his tears now felt like a sick joke.
32:15Your distrust.
32:16Your cruelty.
32:17Did your mother hold a gun to your head for that too?
32:19Stop trying to absolve yourself, Damien.
32:21The regret changes nothing.
32:24It's worthless to me now.
32:25But Damien wasn't even listening.
32:27He just kept repeating.
32:29It was her.
32:31It was her.
32:33After that day, I thought Damien would finally give up and vanish for good.
32:39Unexpectedly, a few days later, he half-dragged Eleanor right in front of me.
32:43Tell her!
32:44Tell her what you did!
32:46Damien's eyes were crazed, pressuring her hysterically.
32:49You set up the fraud!
32:51You trapped her brother!
32:53Twice!
32:54Terrified by Damien's near-psychoconic state, Eleanor's voice trembled.
32:59Yes, I did it eight years ago and I did it again last week.
33:03But that's all I did.
33:04I never killed anyone!
33:06Watching them tear each other apart, I knew that in this timeline, this was all she did.
33:10But in that vanished timeline, the hell I endured.
33:13Eleanor's hands were soaked in blood.
33:15I don't care!
33:16Damien glared at Eleanor, then looked pleadingly at me.
33:20Darting back and forth, he snapped.
33:22Get on your knees!
33:23Apologize to her!
33:25If you apologize, she'll forgive me.
33:27We can go back to how it was.
33:30Watching her son's madness, Eleanor finally broke down in tears.
33:34I was wrong, okay?
33:36Come home with me.
33:37I'll find you a doctor.
33:39Not to me!
33:40To her!
33:41With a violent roar, Damien yanked Eleanor's arm, forcing her down at my feet.
33:47Just then, Ethan stepped in.
33:49He subdued Damien from behind, pinning him to the ground with a swift chokehold.
33:53I called 911.
33:54The world instantly fell silent.
33:56In the fading twilight, only Eleanor's muffled sobs and approaching sirens.
34:01The next time I heard about Damien was a year later.
34:04At my prenatal checkup with Ethan, passing the psych ward, I overheard nurses whispering.
34:09The Ashford heir, apparently he attacked his own mother before they brought him in.
34:12She almost didn't make it.
34:14He keeps repeating some girl's name.
34:16Ethan squeezed my hand and asked softly,
34:19Do you want to go in?
34:20I shook my head.
34:22There was no need.
34:22Honestly, I wasn't surprised by Damien and Eleanor's fate, much less felt any satisfaction.
34:28Mostly, it was just a quiet sigh.
34:30This was supposed to be a clean break, a new start.
34:33Instead, he locked himself inside his own guilt.
34:36Later, I got a call.
34:40The hospital needed me to handle Damien Ashward's final arrangements.
34:44At first, I wanted to refuse, but the hospital informed me I was his only emergency contact.
34:50I gripped my phone, stunned for a long time.
34:53In the end, I went, in the morgue.
34:56He lay there.
34:57His face was peaceful.
34:58Even showing a relieved sort of ease.
35:01I looked at him, unsure how to feel.
35:04The doctor handed me a USB drive with his ward surveillance footage, suggesting I watch it.
35:10In the footage, Damien sometimes whispered tenderly to the air.
35:14Addy, look.
35:15I drew this today.
35:17Does it look like that morning by the bio?
35:19Other times, he abruptly shattered.
35:22Kneeling before the freezing wall, he sobbed his confession.
35:26Addy, I was wrong.
35:28I'll cut my heart out and show you.
35:31Just look at me.
35:32Please, just look at me.
35:34Mostly, he curled in the corner, his nails gouging one name over and over into the plaster.
35:40Addy.
35:41More frantic.
35:43More twisted, like his last shreds of sanity splintering away.
35:47That day, he was unusually calm.
35:50He slowly stepped under the camera, staring endlessly as if piercing the screen to see me.
35:57Finally, he smiled, a clean smile, echoing the boyishness I remembered.
36:02He said,
36:04You've changed.
36:06You're not her anymore, not the Addy I remember.
36:09I'm going to find her, the real her.
36:11She's still out there somewhere.
36:12Then, he returned to his bed and lay down quietly.
36:18He never got up again.
36:23After watching the footage, my tears fell.
36:26Not for love, nor for the dead.
36:29But for two souls across parallel timelines, truly in love, yet doomed to ruin.
36:34For this absurd, brutal point of return.
36:37I cried for a long time.
36:39For everything.
36:41As a final farewell.
36:43Ethan stayed quietly by my side, saying nothing.
36:48He simply let his steady heartbeat tell me he was there.
36:52After settling Damien's final affairs,
36:54we walked out of the cemetery into perfect sunlight.
36:59Ethan's palm rested gently on my swollen pregnant belly.
37:03Inside, a little life thrived, promising a brand new hope.
37:07I turned back one last time, glancing at Damien Ashford's tombstone.
37:13Then, gripping the hand of the man beside me,
37:16I walked step by step into a future that was ours alone.
37:21Listen to me along.
37:21The shield's skin to the dark.
37:21Then, a little book will be Anne Ashford's face.
37:22Tell me along.
37:22Enjoy and about the face again.
37:22For this luke Lo hai n yanlΔ±Ε liek.
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