He Knows the Door to My Soul and Who Forgot to Novel 15

Andrei is overwhelmed by grief and exhaustion, sitting alone in the packhouse when Damon quietly tells him he needs to come with him. Without question, Andrei follows Damon through the estate to the far side near the sea, where the air is cold and salty. This is the same sea where Natalia, Andrei’s loved one, had gone off a cliff weeks earlier. Andrei has been haunted by the loss, especially after seeing a blurry security video of her car being forced off the road and disappearing underwater. The footage was later erased, leaving only uncertainty and pain.

At the edge of the property, Damon reveals a large black SUV with its back doors open. Inside lies a metal case containing a sealed body bag. Andrei’s heart races as Damon warns him to brace himself. When Andrei opens the case, he finds a battered and decomposed body, water-damaged and barely recognizable. Yet, on the right hand of the corpse, Andrei sees a platinum wedding ring—the very ring Natalia never took off. The sight hits him like a physical blow, shaking his belief and hope.

Damon explains that the body was discovered after a recent tide shift, washed up and caught in rocks along the eastern cove. Andrei is devastated and questions why Damon didn’t tell him sooner. Damon wanted Andrei to see the evidence himself. Despite the overwhelming proof, Andrei struggles to accept the reality, suggesting someone could have planted the ring. Damon then presents a sealed evidence bag containing a piece of faded fabric—Natalia’s pale green scarf, unmistakable and deeply personal to Andrei.

The weight of the confirmation causes Andrei to collapse, and Damon catches him, quietly confirming that Natalia is gone. Andrei’s grief turns to anger and blame, accusing Damon of not saving her. The tension between them escalates until a sharp voice interrupts, cutting through the charged silence. The chapter ends on this intense emotional confrontation, highlighting Andrei’s struggle to accept loss and the unresolved conflict between him and Damon.

ANDREI

I didn’t hear the door open.

elbows

I didn’t even look up when footsteps crossed the room and stopped just short of the hearth. I sat with my on my knees, head in my hands, trying to breathe past the hollow ache in my chest that had been growing since morning.

“You need to come with me,” Damon said quietly.

I looked up. He stood in the doorway, unreadable as ever, tension coiled through his frame like a live wire.

“What is it?” I asked, my voice hoarse from a sleepless night.

“Just… come.”

There was something in his tone. Not urgency. Not command. But something final.

I stood without questioning him.

He didn’t speak again as we walked, only led me through the winding halls of the packhouse and out toward the far side of the estate, where the trees grew closer and the shadows darker. The path curved toward the back stables, where the air smelled of damp hay and salt carried from the cliffs nearby.

The sea.

The same sea I’d stared at for weeks now, each wave mocking me with all it refused to give up.

Natalia had gone off a cliff into that same sea.

I’d seen the footage with my own eyes–a grainy security clip, time–stamped and shaky, showing her car being forced off the coastal road. The vehicle plummeting down. Disappearing.

The video had vanished soon after, scrubbed from every server. Whoever had done it had been thorough. My tech team tried everything.

But by then, the car had already been lost to the ocean. No retrieval. No proof.

Just water.

And silence.

But now… now Damon was bringing me here.

We stopped at the base of a bluff near the far end of the property. The wind whipped off the water, sharp with brine and cold.

A long black SUV sat parked beside the edge of the tree line. Its back doors were open. A large case–flat, metal, sterile–rested inside.

Chapter

+25 Bonus

My pulse kicked.

Damon turned to me.

“I need you to brace yourself.”

“What is this?” I asked. “What am I about to see?”

He motioned toward the SUV. “Go look.”

I walked slowly. Every step felt like it pulled me deeper into quicksand.

The case wasn’t locked.

I unlatched it and lifted the lid.

Inside lay a body bag, sealed but fogged from within. The glass–like plastic shimmered faintly in the gray morning light. A cooling unit beneath it hummed quietly.

I looked back at Damon.

He met my eyes and nodded once.

Hands shaking, I reached forward and peeled back the top section of the seal.

A wave of something unholy hit me–salt, decay, time.

The body inside was battered and disfigured beyond easy recognition. Water damage. Partial decomposition. Bones cracked and shifted from the pressure of the sea. Most of the facial tissue had collapsed or been eroded. But there was a shape to it. A size.

And then–my eyes caught it.

On the right hand, half–curled, clinging to bone and sinew, was a ring.

Platinum. Scratched.

But hers.

Natalia’s wedding band.

The one she never took off.

I reeled back, gasping like I’d been punched in the gut.

“No,” I said, voice raw. “No, no–this can’t be real.”

Damon stood behind me, silent.

I turned to him. “Where did you get this?”

“There was a tide shift,” he said. “Two nights ago. Some wreckage floated in. A rogue scout found it caught in the

rocks along the eastern cove. We brought it up this morning.”

Chapter

I stared at him. “And you didn’t call me the second you knew?”

“I wanted to be sure,” he said. “I wanted you to see it for yourself.‘

I staggered back from the vehicle, breathing hard, vision starting to go black at the edges.

“She’s not…” My voice broke. “She can’t be. Damon, she’s not-“}

“You saw the video,” he said gently.

“That doesn’t mean this is her,” I insisted. “Anyone could’ve planted the ring. Anyone could-”

“I knew you’d say that.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a sealed evidence bag. “This was found in the passenger footwell.”

I took it.

Inside was a piece of fabric. Faded, but unmistakable.

Natalia’s scarf. The pale green one she wore on windy mornings. The one I used to find in my desk drawer, her scent clinging to it like a memory.

I pressed the plastic to my chest and felt my knees give out.

Damon caught me before I hit the ground.

“She’s gone,” he said, quieter now. “Andrei…

“No.”

I clutched his jacket, teeth gritted. “Why didn’t you save her, you should have saved her ”

I shoved him. Hard.

He stumbled back, caught himself, then stormed forward again, rage flashing in his eyes.

My fist clenched. I was a breath away from striking him when a voice cut through the air like silk drawn over a knife.

[1]

・

Support

The weight of loss settles heavily over Andrei, a crushing confirmation of the fears he had long tried to suppress. The tangible proof of Natalia’s fate—the battered body, the wedding ring, the scarf—shatters any remaining hope, leaving him raw and broken. Damon’s quiet presence and the steady delivery of grim truths underscore the painful reality that some wounds cannot be undone, no matter how much we wish otherwise. The sorrow is palpable, as Andrei grapples with the unbearable truth and the torment of what might have been.

Yet, beneath the grief and anger lies a fragile thread of connection between the two men, bound by shared pain and unspoken understanding. Damon’s solemn support, though met with resistance, hints at the complex layers of loyalty and heartbreak entwined in their story. In this moment of profound loss, the chapter closes on an emotional precipice, capturing the devastating impact of finality and the haunting echoes of love and memory that refuse to fade.

The next chapter promises to plunge deeper into Andrei’s tumultuous emotions as he grapples with the devastating reality before him. The fragile thread of hope he clings to begins to unravel, and the weight of loss threatens to consume him entirely. The tension between Andrei and Damon, already strained, is poised to reach a breaking point, revealing layers of guilt, anger, and unspoken truths that have been simmering beneath the surface.

As the story unfolds, expect the shadows surrounding Natalia’s death to grow darker and more complex. Secrets hinted at but not yet fully revealed will start to emerge, challenging Andrei’s understanding of what really happened and forcing him to confront painful questions about trust and betrayal. The emotional landscape will be raw and unpredictable, pulling readers into a vortex of grief, suspicion, and the desperate search for closure.

Sara Lili

Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.