Chapter 164: Chapter Hundred And Sixty Three

The sound of the broken wooden post hitting Damon’s broad back still echoed in Camilla’s mind.

Damon did not let her go. He kept his strong arms wrapped tightly around her small body. He slowly loosened his grip just enough to pull back and look down at her face.

His eyes were wide and searching. The cold, terrifying mask was completely gone. In its place was a look of pure panic.

Damon looked at her, his hands moving gently over her shoulders to check for any hidden injuries.

"Are you alright?" Damon asked quickly. His deep voice was shaking. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

His voice was filled with deep, undeniable concern. He did not care about the sharp, throbbing pain spreading across his own back. He only cared about the woman in his arms.

Camilla stared up at him. Her eyes were completely wide with shock.

"Damon," Camilla whispered softly. Her voice was just a tiny breath of air.

She was completely shocked to see him there. He was supposed to be miles away at the military camp, even if he was going to come, it shouldn’t be this quick. But she was even more shocked that he had used his own body as a human shield to protect her from physical harm. He had willingly taken a brutal, heavy blow just to keep her safe. In her former life no one had ever taken a hit for her. She had always fought alone.

Before Camilla could answer his worried questions, the sound of fast, heavy footsteps running down the stone path broke the quiet moment.

A young, well-dressed man came running frantically from the direction of the bright ballroom. Right behind him was a medical doctor carrying a brown leather bag. The young man was Elora’s older brother.

The young man saw his sister sitting on the stone path, crying and holding her bleeding arm. Then, he looked up and saw his mother standing frozen with the broken piece of wood at her feet.

"Mother, what did you do?" the young man said loudly, his voice full of disbelief and panic. He looked at the General standing there, shielding his wife.

The doctor did not ask questions. He immediately rushed to Elora, kneeling on the hard stones. The doctor opened his bag and quickly began attending to Elora’s deep, bleeding wound.

Elora’s mother, Lady Adeline, completely ignored her son. She did not look at Elora. The older woman’s face was pale, but her arrogant, toxic pride quickly returned. She refused to look weak in front of the General.

Lady Adeline lifted her chin high. She spoke to Damon, whose broad back was still turned toward her.

"Damon, as your elder," Lady Adeline said loudly, trying to force a tone of commanding authority into her shaking voice.

Damon slowly let go of Camilla’s shoulders. He stood up perfectly straight.

He turned around to face the older woman.

When Lady Adeline saw his face, she took a sudden, fearful step backward. Damon’s dark brown eyes were completely bloodshot and red from rage. The look on his face was terrifying. It was the face of a man ready to slaughter an entire army.

But Lady Adeline stubbornly held her ground. She thought her status in the extended family would protect her from his anger.

"Today, I stand in place of your deceased parents to teach this girl a lesson," Lady Adeline declared boldly, pointing a finger directly at Camilla. "The Benson family doesn’t have a daughter-in-law like her. She is wild, she is dangerous, and she attacked my child. Someone had to discipline her."

Damon took one slow step forward. His boots crunched against the gravel.

"What right do you have to discipline my wife?" Damon spoke.

His deep voice boomed with explosive anger. The sound of his voice was so loud and so powerful that the nearby garden leaves actually seemed to shake. The doctor tending to Elora froze completely in fear.

Camilla stood behind Damon’s broad back. She looked up at his tall, protective figure.

"Is he defending me?" Camilla thought to herself, her mind completely stunned. "The Tyrant General is actually standing up to his own noble family for me?"

Damon did not stop. He took another step toward the older woman, his hands curling into tight, dangerous fists.

Damon continued, looking directly into Lady Adeline’s terrified eyes.

"Do you remember what you told me when my parents died, Lady Adeline?" Damon asked. His voice dropped into a deadly, freezing whisper.

Standing behind him, Camilla’s sharp memory instantly recognized the words. Her mind quickly pulled up the tragic backstory from the original web novel.

Camilla remembered the heart-wrenching flashback from the book.

It was many years ago. The air was freezing cold. The main Benson mansion was entirely draped in black cloth for mourning.

Duke Carson, Damon’s grandfather, was lying in a deep, unresponsive coma after hearing the sudden, terrible news of the death of his eldest son and his daughter-in-law.

Young Damon was just a small, lonely boy. He was standing alone in the massive, dark hallway of the estate. He was wearing a small black attire. His heart was completely broken. He had lost his mother, his father, and his grandfather was dying in a bed upstairs. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Young Damon was completely alone.

Then, Lady Adeline approached him. She wore an expensive black mourning dress. But her face did not show any pity for the grieving child. Her face showed pure, ugly disgust. She wanted the Benson fortune for her own husband.

Lady Adeline stopped in front of the small boy. She looked down her nose at him.

"The Benson family has nothing to do with an orphan," Lady Adeline told the young boy cruelly, her voice dripping with poison. "Sooner or later, you will be dead too."

Young Damon stared up at his aunt, his small eyes wide with shock.

Lady Adeline leaned closer, delivering the cruelest, most wicked words a child could ever hear.

"Your parents despised you so much they died," Lady Adeline hissed softly. "And now your grandfather doesn’t want to wake up because of you. You are a curse to this family."

Young Damon lowered his head. He clenched his small hands into tight, shaking fists at his sides. He bit his lower lip so hard it bled, desperately trying not to cry in front of the evil woman. He felt completely worthless and entirely unloved.

Then, hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway.

Mrs. Ida, the middle-aged head maid, came running. She rushed forward and completely wrapped her warm arms around the small, shaking boy. She hugged young Damon tightly to her chest, shielding him from the evil aunt.

"My lady," Mrs. Ida pleaded, tears streaming down her own face. "Please spare the boy. He is in so much pain. Have some mercy."

Lady Adeline scoffed loudly in disgust. She turned around and walked away, her expensive black dress swishing on the stone floor.

Mrs. Ida knelt down on the cold floor. She held young Damon’s face in her hands.

"Cry if you want to, your grace," Mrs. Ida whispered softly, her voice full of motherly love. "I will be here to wipe your tears. You are not a curse."

The flashback ended in Camilla’s mind.

Camilla stared at Damon’s broad back. A sharp pain hit her own chest. She finally understood the deep, crushing tragedy of Damon’s life.

Lady Adeline had broken him when he was just a child. But the tragedy was even worse now. Because Camilla knew the truth about Mrs. Ida. The very same maid who had hugged him and wiped his tears that dark day was the exact same woman who had betrayed him and tried to have him assassinated years later.

Damon had literally lost every single person who had ever shown him love and locked his heart out for anyone else.

Camilla whispered to herself, " He constantly avoided the original Camilla because he felt her love was going to hurt him too and when he heard she was a spy planted by this evil family member, he just wanted her away as far as possible from his life. Hence, he sent her the divorce papers." Camilla looked at his broad back. " Poor boy."

Damon stared at Lady Adeline with cold dead eyes. The anger was gone, replaced by a terrifying emptiness.

"Everything I have," Damon stated firmly, his voice echoing in the quiet night, "has absolutely nothing to do with you anymore. You are not my family. You are nothing to me."

Lady Adeline’s face turned bright, burning red with humiliation and arrogant fury. She was an elder noblewoman. No one ever spoke to her like that in public.

"You ungrateful..." Lady Adeline shrieked loudly, completely losing her mind.