He dropped to his knees once more, clutching his chest, his breath coming in broken gasps. His body convulsed with the pain in his heart, sharp and unbearable. It felt like the very organ inside him was tearing apart.
And maybe it was.
Adrian’s heart. The one that beat inside him now. The one that had always belonged to Seraphina first. Maybe this was why it hurt so much. Maybe this was why every cry he let out was heavier, sharper, filled with more anguish than he could understand.
Or maybe it wasn’t Adrian at all.
Maybe it was him.
For years he told himself Seraphina was nothing but convenience. That she was pity. That she was never love. Yet here he was, on his knees in the middle of the street, sobbing her name, begging the universe to give her back.
Because somewhere in the years, without admitting it, without realizing it—he had loved her. Truly, deeply, helplessly.
And now, she was gone.
His hands clawed against the pavement, his voice hoarse, broken. “Seraphina… Seraphina… please, don’t leave me…”
The sirens faded, the murmurs of the crowd dimmed, but his cries remained, echoing into the night, carried on the wind.
No one—not even Dominic himself—could tell if it was Adrian’s heart breaking inside him, or Dominic’s own. All that was certain was that Seraphina had taken both with her, leaving him hollow, shattered, undone.
Dominic’s POV
I could still see it as if it were yesterday. The first time Adrian and I laid eyes on Seraphina.
We were in college then—two young men who had always competed with each other, whether in studies, sports, or even who could drink more at a party. But when she walked into that café near the campus, everything stopped.
She wasn’t even doing anything extraordinary—just ordering coffee with that quiet confidence, her hair loose around her shoulders, her smile polite. But something about her caught the light in a way that made the whole room turn.
I remember nudging Adrian with my elbow. “She’s beautiful.”
His gaze had already fixed on her, intense, like he had been waiting his whole life for her to arrive. “She’s mine,” he said simply, as though declaring it to the universe.
I scoffed. “Yours? We don’t even know her name.”