I opened my mouth, trying to decide whether to tell him but his phone rang. He glanced at the screen, and for a moment, something unreadable crossed his eyes. Then he answered.
“Dominic!” A woman’s voice burst through the speaker, trembling and breathless. “Please help me… I think someone’s following me. I’m so scared!”
Loriana.
His whole body went tense. “Send me your location.”
He hung up and grabbed his jacket. Didn’t even look at me.
“Baby, there’s something urgent at work. Go home first, alright?”
The door slammed behind him.
I didn’t go home.
Something in my chest burned—rage, heartbreak, maybe just that quiet knowing that I’d been a fool for too long. I called a cab and told the driver to follow him.
He stopped in an alley. From the shadows, I saw him. Dominic was standing in front of Loriana like a shield, facing a group of men holding metal rods.
She clung to him, pretending to cry, but I could see it, how she watched him through her tears, how not one of them touched her.
Dominic fought like he wasn’t even human… every punch was wild, desperate, like he’d die before letting anyone near her. I’d never seen him like that. Not once for me.
Then one of the men pulled out a knife. He charged toward her.
“Lory!” Dominic shouted, and without a second thought, he threw himself in front of her.
The knife plunged into his chest.
Blood spread fast across his shirt, bright against the white. Loriana screamed like she was the one stabbed.
“Dominic! No, please!” she sobbed, holding his face, crying so hard it almost looked real.
He tried to smile, weak and shaking. “Don’t cry… I promised I’d protect you. I’ll keep that promise…”
I stood there, frozen at the mouth of the alley, my hands trembling. It felt like someone had ripped out my heart and left me hollow.
.....
Outside the operating room, Loriana cried so hard she could barely talk. “He’s always like this,” she told anyone who’d listen. “Once, he risked his life in a car race just to win me a necklace. When I was in an accident, he gave so much blood he passed out…”
I leaned against the cold wall, listening in silence.
And suddenly, the memory came back.
That night months ago. The empty street. The sound of footsteps behind me that wouldn’t stop.
A man’s shadow followed me from the train station, closer and closer until I could hear his breathing. I’d called Dominic, terrified, my voice breaking.