Chapter 86: Secrets and Revelations

I was sipping my morning coffee in the study, the faint aroma of the roasted beans mingling with the crispness of the air. Damien sat across from me, absently flipping through pages of an old journal he'd recently rediscovered. It wasn't often I saw him this quiet, his expression distant, almost troubled.

"You've been staring at that page for ten minutes," I teased lightly, trying to draw him out of his thoughts.

He looked up, offering me a small, distracted smile. "Sorry. Just... thinking."

I set my cup down. "Thinking about what?"

For a moment, he hesitated, his fingers lingering on the edge of the journal's page. Then, as if making a decision, he closed the book and placed it on the table between us.

"About my family," he said finally. "And the things I haven't told you."