One Night Stand, Eight Surprises: Pampered by My CEO Husband --- - Chapter 133: Chapter 133

Arielle couldn’t breathe.
In the dream, everything had the texture of glass—too smooth, too fragile. She stood in a field of white, colorless and still, her bare feet pressed into frozen ground. The sky above her was blank. No stars. No moon. Only silence.
She turned, calling out.
“Damien?”
Nothing.
The wind didn’t rustle. The air didn’t move. She was completely, terrifyingly alone.
And then she saw it.
A shadow at the edge of the horizon. Tall. Familiar. Damien.
She began to run.
But with each step forward, the distance grew. He didn’t turn. Didn’t move. Just stood there, a silhouette carved into the cold.
“Damien!” she screamed, her voice tearing through the stillness.
He turned—slowly—and looked at her with eyes that held nothing.
Not recognition. Not love. Not pain.
Just absence.
Then he dissolved, like smoke into wind, and she dropped to her knees, her scream swallowed by silence.
Arielle woke with a jolt, drenched in sweat. Her heart galloped in her chest, wild and uneven. Her fingers clawed at the sheets, searching, needing—
“Damien?”
He stirred beside her instantly, groggy but alert, already turning toward her. “I’m here.”
She launched into him, burying her face into his chest, trembling.
“I lost you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “In the dream. You were there and then… gone.”
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his warmth. “I’m right here, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”
Her sobs were quiet, but they wracked her body.
“I couldn’t reach you,” she murmured. “I kept calling. You didn’t look back.”
Damien kissed her hair. “It wasn’t real.”
“It felt real. Too real.”
They lay there for a long while, her breathing slowly settling into his. He held her like she was made of glass, whispering words she barely heard but felt like anchors: "I’m here. I’m not leaving. I love you. You’re safe."
When her breathing evened out, he reached over and turned on the nightstand lamp. The soft glow painted golden shadows across the room.
“Talk to me,” he said gently.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I thought I was doing better.”
“You are.”
“I thought the nightmares had stopped.”
“They’ll come and go. But you’re not facing them alone.”
She nodded, then hesitated. “Damien… sometimes I wonder what would happen if you left. If something happened to you.”
He met her gaze. “Something did happen. To both of us. And we’re still here. I’m still yours. Every single part of me.”
She blinked back fresh tears. “I think that’s what scares me the most. Having something so beautiful. Being this happy… makes me terrified it could be taken away.”
He cupped her face. “Then let’s make a promise.”
She looked at him, confused.
He sat up slowly and pulled her with him, wrapping the blanket around their shoulders.
“Every time the fear comes—every time your mind whispers the worst—I want you to tell me. Out loud. No matter the hour.”
Arielle hesitated, then nodded. “And you?”
He smiled gently. “I’ll do the same. No pretending. No shielding. Just truth.”
They linked pinkies like children.
Arielle exhaled shakily. “I dreamed you didn’t remember me.”
“Then let me remind you, every day, who I am and who you are to me.”
He leaned in, kissed her lips—soft, slow, deep.
Not hungry. Not hurried.
Just home.
Later that morning, while the kids played and chaos returned to the house, Damien handed her something small.
A tiny glass vial.
Inside, a slip of parchment curled like a secret.
She opened it.
On it was one line of handwriting.
Even in the dark, I will find you.
She clutched it to her chest.
He smiled. “Your dream may come back. But now you’ll have this.”
And that night, when shadows returned and her thoughts began to stir, she held the vial tight—and Damien tighter.
She still dreamed.
But this time, when the silence came, so did the light.