chapter eleven

Chapter Eleven – The Test and the Break

Ziora's heart was pounding like it wanted to escape her chest. Her thoughts were noisy, stormy. She had barely slept the night before, and now, standing in front of Damian, she had to know.

"Who is Sasha to you?" she asked quietly.

Damian looked up from his phone, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Sasha?" he echoed, not even flinching.

"Yes," she said. "You knew she was sent by me."

He didn't deny it. "Of course I knew. From the moment she messaged me, I suspected. The questions were too perfect. Too calculated."

Her heart dropped. "Then why didn't you act like you knew? Why didn't you pass the test?"

He leaned forward, voice cool. "Because if you think you need to test me, then that says more about your trust in me than my loyalty to you."

Ziora stared at him, wounded. "So, what? You decided to fail the test on purpose?"

"I did what you expected me to do," Damian said flatly. "I gave you what was already in your head."

"Damian," she whispered, eyes glistening. "If you knew, you could have done better. You could have used your brain—for me. Just to prove me wrong."

He shrugged. "I'm not a puppet in your little games, Z. You planted Sasha. You wanted a result. You got it."

Her stomach twisted. She had hoped this confrontation would bring clarity. Closure. Maybe even a flicker of remorse. But Damian was cold. Unapologetic. Distant.

"I loved you," she whispered, voice breaking. "All I wanted was to feel safe."

"And yet you never trusted me," he said simply.

That was the last straw.

Ziora stood, tears threatening to fall. "We're done, Damian."

He blinked. "You've said that before."

"I mean it this time," she said. "I can't do this anymore."

Later that night, Ziora lay in bed, her chest hollow, her fingers clenched around her phone.

She messaged Sasha — the same Sasha who had been her online confidante. A stranger turned friend. Someone she met randomly on an art forum, who gradually became the person Ziora told everything to — the things she couldn't even share with Chioma or Halima.

It was Sasha who had suggested the test.

Now, Sasha's reply was blunt.

"You need to block him, Zee. That boy's draining your soul. Heal from it. Please."

Ziora stared at the message for a long time. Her thumb hovered over the block button on Damian's profile. But she couldn't do it.

She still loved him. Stupid, wild, aching love.

And love — the way she felt it — wasn't something you switched off like a light.

So, instead, she turned off her phone and cried quietly into her pillow, hoping that maybe sleep would bring some peace.

But peace, like Damian, didn't show up when she needed it most.