Sam entered the front door silently ahead of Damian in the Stratham mansion and watched as the staff came after them bringing their belongings. She smiled politely when he introduced her formally to the household, who greeted her in unison.“Have my wife’s things placed in my room,” Damian then instructed and the head housekeeper immediately instructed the staff and helped with one bag. He then turned to the butler. “We will have lunch in thirty minutes.”“Yes, Mr. McLaren.”When they were finally alone, Sam was about to say something to Damian when his phone rang. Answering his phone and telling the caller to wait for a while, he turned to Sam and kissed her on the head.“It’s Frederick,” he informed. “I’ll take the call in my office. I’ll look for you.”Sam watched as he took off until she was on her own in the wide foyer. She walked towards the center table where a large flower arrangement of lilies was placed.After staying for three more days in Menorca, Damian informed her that
Damian, sitting in his chair inside his office, is deeply analyzing the words that Sam had said yesterday. The phone on his desk rang but he didn't answer it. His frown intensified especially when Sam told him that while they are together, she will do everything in her power to protect him from her world. She seems to have forgotten who she is married to, he thought with annoyance. He leaned back on his chair. Just how cruel is your world, Samantha? He recalled the way her face changed when he surprised her by having her dog brought to Stratham. When he found her at the terrace, her expression was void of all emotions, the wall she had built over the years, gaining another inch. But when Gunny came in, it's as if it vanished as her expression changed into relief, knowing that she has someone with her now to erase her loneliness. Damian suddenly felt a twinge of jealousy towards her dog. Sam never had that expression on her face when she sees him. He wondered when will she
Sam leaned back on her chair as she read through the financial report that she requested that afternoon of the same day. She reached for a highlighter and started marking the figures that she checked.For the next two hours, she reviewed the files Shirley had placed on her table. The last folder she picked up contains the ongoing works at several floors of the building below where Damian's shopping mall will connect.Opening the file, she first read the progress report along with photos attached. She noted the delays and the buffer of works being done to ensure the target percentage."Shirley?" Sam called out, pressing on the intercom and waited for the answer. "Can you please check if Felix's at his office? I need to see him now.""He just came in here, Sam," Shirley responded with a hint of surprise in her voice. "I'll let him in."Sam stood up when the door to her office opened and Felix Conroy came in with a set look on his face. She already has a suspicion in her mind and it's fr
Sam entered her office the following day and abruptly stopped when she saw Felix Conroy standing by her office, obviously waiting for her arrival. She gripped the folder in her hand when he turned towards her expectantly.“Were you able to have the figures revised?” Felix then asked expectantly.Walking towards her desk, Sam placed her bag on the chair and handed him the folder. She watched as Felix opened the file and read through it with his eyes for a long while before finally nodding with satisfaction.“Good to see that you had him agree to this,” he said to her calmly. “The ROI he presented will not be suitable for us. Have this notarized immediately by legal, Sam and then we can put this to rest.”“I had Shirley call them to come here to get the file,” Sam informed patiently.“Well, that’s it then,” Felix said with finality. He looked at her and there was some glint in his eyes but decided not to say it. “As long as you are keeping McLaren in check, we won’t be seeing each other
Damian stared grimly as Sam was tucked into her bed by Ara in the room she had first stayed in at Stratham and watched Gunny immediately jumping up the bed and settled beside her, his head resting on her upper arm.Sam had also taken some pills.At Ara’s firm insistence, when they all decided to take Sam back home, she stepped up and told Damian to let Sam stay in a separate room. He was about to refuse but Oliver Morgan, Sam’s therapist backed her up. He was the unknown man in Sam’s office when he was able to bring Sam out of the toilet.He recalled what Sam said after he informed that he was called in urgently.“I thought I was going to be okay,” Sam only replied. She stood beside Damina silently for a long while. She was breathing slowly before looking back at Oliver. “But I don’t think I ever was, Ollie. I thought I was but I’m not. I don’t know what to do.”“I’m here,” Oliver assured as he walked towards her but stopped when Damian gave him a dark look. He gestured to one of the
Damian was left sitting on the couch as Ara and Vincent escorted Oliver out of his house, talking in lowering voices about Sam’s condition. He leaned back and closed his eyes as the words of her psychiatrist came haunting him back.“Sam said that she is dirty,” Oliver said.“Dirty?” Ara asked, aghast at the word. “How did she ever come up with that description to herself? Why did she even think of that?!”“She refused to expound,” Oliver responded grimly. “I tried to let her expound but stopped because the more I tried, the more she retreats. I cannot have that happened. It was difficult pulling her out from the abyss she drowned in.”Oliver continued to discussed some more about Sam’s condition and apologized that he couldn’t be able to give them more answers. Only questions have remained and he gave his word that he will check on Sam from time to time.“If she decides to go down at her own time, give her the upper hand,” he suggested. “She will for sure look for some affirmation. Ju
Sam entered the lobby of her office the following Monday morning and shook her head at Shirley when she saw her secretary about to ask regarding the two bodyguards, which are following her behind.Pushing the door to her office, she immediately proceeded to her desk and sat down.“Did Damian give instructions for you to stay here?” She questioned tightly when she noted that Noah and Brandon, the other guard assigned to her stood by the door. She frowned when Noah turned to her and nodded briefly. “Pray tell me how I can be able to escape? The only way is through those glass and I have no plans in jumping.”“We will stand by outside your office, Mrs. McLaren,” Noah finally responded and the two of them immediately went out.Sam leaned back on her chair, closing her eyes.Ever since telling Damian that she wanted divorce, she had the two men following her wherever she goes even if she is just at the Stratham mansion. She tried talking to Damian, but her husband seemed to have disappeare
Sam stared at the file on her hand intently while gripping it with her hand tightly.Thoughts of what transpired between her and Damian came flooding back into her mind as the memory of her insisting on the figures for the ROI surfaced. She recalled the lengths she had to go through for Damian to finally agree.“Who the f8ck are you?!” Lucilla shouted at the bodyguards angrily. She turned to Sam. “Oh, so you now have the arrogance to hire bodyguards to protect you, Sam?! Do you really think you have a lot of threats that you need protecting?! It should be the other way around because they are the ones that needs protection from you!”He’s doing this on purpose, Sam thought wildly, not hearing Lucilla’s continuous rant. Is this the hell that he told me?Unable to control her emotions, Sam felt her body trembling, her knees starting to get weak. The file she held in her hand suddenly dropped to the floor and Noah turned towards her when he felt it.“Madam?” He asked in concern.Sam look
Damian thanked Nino, the waiter that Venuti assigned to him after receiving his drink from him. He downed the drink in one go and requested to get him another one.“You really should take it slow,” Vincent muttered dryly.“Now I know why Venuti insisted that we come here,” Damian said darkly as he nodded at Nino. He lowered his hand that is holding his new drink and scowled when he saw Omar and Vittoria in his line of sight. “Never thought the old man can be quite scheming.”“Thank God that my wife doesn’t like Vittoria,” Vincent commented in a low voice.Damian nodded, thankful that Vincent’s wife, Katherine is with him. She immediately took Sam with her, making sure that their paths won’t crossed with the newly engaged couple.He saw the way Sam’s face clouded with anxiety that Damian was ready to leave the party just to protect her.“You’re not going anywhere, Damian. So’s your wife,” a voice said behind and when he turned, he saw Katherine, wrapping an arm around Vincent’s waist.
Sam leaned back on her chair and closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh after finally finalizing the contract deal of an existing building that Damian had been eyeing and negotiating for quite a while on a Friday afternoon, few hours before office for the day ends. She felt the cool breeze of the AC in one of the vacant offices in his company on the same floor with his, making her sleepy.For the past two weeks, she had been going with Damian to his office, helping him with the files that has something to do with Cameron. Without waiting for his permission, she immediately took the files from Frederick and started on it.By end of the first week, she was able to accomplished more than half of the documents that had been pending for quite a while. Her mind became hungry to work and she started automatically.Sam was more than happy to help, knowing that Damian had been sacrificing some work time to accommodate her since she started getting sick. She also felt a little guilty since he
Damian waited as Sam finally bade goodbye to SJ and Elli later that night when the event was finally over. He stood a few feet away as Sam turned down SJ’s invitation to visit him and Elli at Chatsworth House, citing some work she needed to attend to.“When you have the time, don’t hesitate to call,” Elli added warmly. “I’ll introduce you to my father.”Sam nodded with a smile.“Good to meet you, McLaren,” SJ said, holding out one hand to Damian. They shook hands firmly and then SJ looked at them with an amused smile on his face. “Hoping for a good turnout from both of you.”“What do you mean?” Sam inquired that SJ only laughed in return.“Take the win of the jewelry, Sammie,” SJ retorted. He pulled Elli closer to his side. “I’ll nurse my wife over the loss of it.”“SJ,” Elli hissed shyly.“Car’s here,” Damian informed to Sam and he gently assisted her down the last few steps. When Sam is finally inside the car, he turned back to SJ and Elli. “I’ll call you once we have the time to tr
“Watching your wife like a hawk, McLaren?”Damian turned his head away from where Sam is and glared at SJ Kincaid, who is enjoying his glass of whiskey. After hearing his name, Damian immediately knew who he is.He was surprised that Sam is good friends with him, knowing that their companies are each other’s top competitors in the country. Much more so that SJ is a minority holder of some stocks at Cameron.“Ah.. just like me when I was first with my wife,” SJ added. “Perhaps you and I have something in common. Both of our wives are pretty much younger than us. But, it took a while for me to realize she’s the one.”“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Damian snapped.SJ chuckled.“Oh, I think you do but you just refused to admit it,” he countered in amusement as he signaled to the bartender for another drink. “Trust me, McLaren. It’s only going to get worst overtime.”Damian turned his full attention to SJ.“Do tell me about it since you’re knowledgeable on that subject,” he said
Sam carefully zipped up her dress and looked at herself in the mirror in the walk-in closet inside one of the rooms in Damian’s luxurious apartment in Rome on a late Thursday afternoon. She turned sideways to make sure that there are no creases before she finally put on her black pumps and walked back to the bedroom.After staying in Bassano for almost two months in his family home, Damian finally decided to bring Sam to Rome with him. It was an emotional goodbye between Sam and Aurora with Sam crying hard that Damian had to reprimand her gently.“Oh, shush, Damian,” Aurora chided as she hugged Sam tightly, rubbing her back. She kissed Sam on her side of the head. “This just tells you that you should visit me more often.”Sam saw Damian rolling his eyes in amusement.They left Bassano del Grappa with his private plane and Sam was still sobbing. Damian finally told her to take her medication to calm herself down. He knew that she had stopped taking them after that dinner with his relat
Damian felt Sam tensed beside him in the dining table as his aunt and uncle’s family each placed a portion of pasta on their plates that night. He glanced down and saw his wife’s hands clenched on her lap underneath the table.“Mmm.. I do miss your pasta, Aurora,” Filomena gushed after sprinkling pepper on top and then bringing her fork to her mouth. “Perhaps you can take a short trip and go back home with me?”“That’s ridiculous,” Marciano interjected gently. “She’s going to have a trip back with her favorite sibling! Me!”Aurora and the others laughed as the two continued to banter.There was silence for a while as they finally tasted the pasta.Damian watched as his uncle and aunt chewed slowly while his wife beside him is already pale and look ready to faint from her worrying. He abruptly reached for Sam’s wine glass and handed it to her.Sam looked at him in surprise.“I’ll drink later,” she murmured as she placed her glass back on the table.“I must say, Aurora,” Marciano starte
Sam’s brows furrowed with concentration as she started to knead the dough, she is doing for the pasta that she’s going to make inside the kitchen of Aurora on a Friday late morning.She could hear her mother-in-law’s voice from the dining area, arguing with Damian while speaking with their family doctor. As they were headed towards the popular Ponte Vecchio, a tourist spot in town, Aurora suddenly felt unwell that Damian called the trip off.Despite Aurora’s insistence that she is fine and pushed him to take Sam to the trip, Sam also made the decision to stay. She does not want to put Damian in the middle.“Oh, dear,” Aurora then said after she sat down.“What is it, mami?” Laura asked, whom Sam finally met three days ago after arriving from France, where she was taking up her master’s degree. “Is something the matter?”“I told Maria that I will be doing the pasta for dinner tonight!” Aurora replied miserably. She tried to stand up but Damian pushed her back down gently and gave her a
Damian stared darkly at the contract that he is currently reviewing in his office at his headquarters in Rome. He clutched the edge of the contract angrily, forgetting that Frederick is inside his office, who now stopped speaking when he heard the paper being crumpled.It is a sunny Wednesday morning with the lights streaming inside his office. It has been two weeks since he arrived in Italy and more than a week of him staying in Rome to cater all the work he needed to do.Sam, to his annoyance, was held up by his mother back at Bassano.“I’m sure Sam has been to Rome several times, Damian,” Aurora pointed out frankly. They were having a light dinner at his mother’s insistence since he’ll be leaving early tomorrow. “And, at this time, the tourists will be flocking all over the world. She doesn’t need to be in that environment.”“Do you think I’m not going to do something about it?” Damian asked angrily. He turned to Sam, who is staring at him patiently. “Just pack light. You can enjoy
Damien pursed his lips as he knocked on his mother’s room late that night. He waited for her to tell him to come in and did, finding her occupying her favorite chair by the side of the opened glass door leading to the balcony and reading a book.“Close the door and take a seat, Damien,” Aurora said calmly, not taking her eyes off the book. “And get that stern look off your face. You know how much I dislike it especially when you will try to tell me off of what I’m doing.”He sat and remained silent, looking at his mother as she finally closed her book and placed it on the table between them and stared back at him. She took her time as she leaned forward, picking up her cup, sipping her tea slowly.“So?” She asked calmly. “Why are you here?”“You’re supposed to be on my side,” he accused lightly. "Why do I have a feeling that you are making me the enemy in this house?!"Aurora just gave him an amused look.“To which, I am but remember that I am on your side,” she countered gently. She