DAMIAN As Anton turned onto the street that would take us to the gym, he said, "You have to tread cautiously." "Er- and what are you referring to?" "You and Amelia. You shouldn't have sex with her. Remember that the contract lasts for only one year. If you're constantly intimate with her, don't you think everything will get more complicated when it's time for both of you to split up?" I felt his eyes on me, so I looked out the window. "Who said I was still having sex with her anyway?" Anton snorted. "Last night at your place, I saw the way you two were looking at each other-" "We were just excited at getting rid of Petra." Anton kept talking as though he didn't hear me. "You both looked as though you couldn't wait for me to leave before taking your clothes off." When I said nothing, he added in a more humourous tone. "And if I had any doubts about what you two were up to last night, I only have to look at your face to know I'm right. But seriously, Damian. Don't
AMELIA Just as I was again reflecting on the fact that Damian had not returned home last night, the door opened, and a moment later, the subject of my thoughts came into the house. In spite of myself, my eyes roved around him, searching for lipstick stains or other telltale signs that he had been with another woman last night. I found none, but that did not mean he hadn't been tumbling in bed with some floozy. The thought made me really angry. "Good morning," I said coldly and returned to sipping my steaming cup of coffee. My eyes roved through the list of orders for the bakery, but I could suddenly not understand what was written there. "Good morning," Damian called back cheerfully. To my surprise, instead of going straight to his room like I expected him to, he came to sit on the sofa. "You're probably wondering where I went to," he said after a moment's silence. "I just realized you didn't spend the night at home," I said as casually as I could. I was ca
AMELIA I was peering at the screen of my computer, surfing the net and writing down prices of some items I wished to purchase when Rose, the manager of my bakery, called me. "Hello?" I picked up the phone eagerly. "Ma'am," she gasped and swallowed audibly. I sat upright immediately. Just that one word and I knew that something was very, very wrong. Unconsciously, I gripped the phone tightly. "Rose, what's wrong?" She made a sound halfway between a gasp and a sigh. She seemed to be struggling to speak. "I'm sorry... It's just that I'm still so shaken... though we've got it under control, but for a while, I thought- I thought-" She swallowed again. "Take a deep breath and tell me what happened," I said more calmly than I felt. Rose audibly exhaled. "There's been a fire at the bakery." "WHAT?" My hands trembled, and I grabbed the phone tighter. "It's under control now," she hastened to add. “We were able to put out the fire.” My brain whirled in a hundred d
AMELIA It’s been two days since Lora attempted to destroy my bakery. I’ve been on edge, bothered and terrified of everything. Damian had assured me nothing would happen, but I didn’t believe him. If she could do it once, she could definitely do it again. I had tried to convince him to get her arrested or sued in court, but he claimed we didn’t have substantial evidence to do that. Evidence my foot! From the descriptions of my staff and past experiences, we had all the evidence we needed against her. But Damian was bent on letting her go till we had something substantial to hold against her. Damn him and his ex. I sighed and continued typing on my MacBook when a knock came on my door. “Come in,” I called out, not lifting my head from my screen. The door opened and closed sharply. “Nice place you’ve got.” I knew that voice. I lifted my head to meet Anton’s gaze. What was he doing at the bakery? “Anton? What are you doing here?” I shook my head. “Please, forgiv
AMELIA The party was finally over. The guests were gone. The house had been tidied up, thanks to the servers hired for the event, but I still could not get the sight of Damian's annoyed expression out of my head when he registered that he had walked into a surprise birthday party. Anton was right. Damian actually did hate surprise parties, but after a while, he accepted the party with good grace. However, I had noticed that whenever no one had been close enough to engage him in conversation, he tended to stay by himself at the back of the room, sipping a drink and looking like he wished he were somewhere else. Anton had not allowed him to brood. I put away the unused bottles of wine in the fridge and searched for Damian. I found him nibbling on a piece of his birthday cake and scowling as though remembering something unpleasant. He didn’t look particularly excited, but he didn’t look like he would bite either. "Hey, birthday boy," I said, lowering myself onto the sofa bes
AMELIA "And you know Lucy, of course," Betty said. "What's wrong, dear?" Betty asked,, finally noticing my mood. "Nothing," I said quickly. "I er- didn't know Lucy would be coming." "I'm a fashion designer, you know, a fact that I mentioned when we had dinner at the mayor's. Betty wants me here for my expert advice." I nodded. Lucy extended her hand in greeting. It had barely touched mine before she pulled it away like she had touched something infectious. The next moment, a handkerchief had materialized in her hand. She began scrubbing at the fingers that had touched me. I heartily wished now that I hadn't come. "We were just starting," said Betty and I was glad of an excuse to turn away from Lucy. I got the distinct impression that Betty's three other friends didn't like me very much. They seemed to be sizing me up. "This is my favourite place to shop. They literally have everything here. Well, not everything but you get my drift. Have you been here before, dear?" "No,
DAMIAN I drummed my fingers impatiently on the desk in my study as I thought of what to do. Getting Amelia released from jail was simple enough. Getting her released it in such a way that no one got wind of the fact that she had gotten arrested in the first place, was the challenge. The issue would have to be handled really carefully. A wave of anger and irritation coursed through me. What had she gone and gotten herself arrested for? "Focus, Damian. Focus," I muttered to myself. I grabbed my phone and quickly scrolled through it for a while before I found the number I was looking for. I dialed it. The man was a lawyer I had some dealings with a while ago. He had useful connections with the bigwigs and authority figures in this city and beyond. He was the soul of discretion, and discretion was what I needed at this moment. "Mr Donovan," he said through the phone. "It's been quite a while." "Yes. Yes. I need your help with something. My wife, Amelia, has got herself into a
DAMIAN "Just give me a moment to see all this," I told the project engineer tersely. The afternoon sun beat down mercilessly on me as I moved around the site, checking out the equipment. Another engineer at my side hurried to keep up as he pointed out the various equipments that had been damaged. For the past week, I had been getting reports of damaged or malfunctioning equipment at the site of the bullet train railway. This time, the damage had been very extensive. When I checked and discovered that sugar had been poured into the gas tanks of some of the heavy duty machinery, my suspicions were proven. What had been happening at the site was sabotage. After about forty-five minutes of inspection, I gave the project engineer a defeated stare. "We will have to put the entire project on hold for now," I said. "Call off the workers." He nodded, paused to wipe a stream of sweat running down his face. "But sir, the mayor..." he said. Ah. The mayor. He had been impressed
AMELIA FIVE YEARS LATER "Yay! Pancakes! Mum made pancakes!” The excited shouts... or screeches were followed by the sound of running footsteps. I sincerely hoped they were not... But of course they were, I thought in mild exasperation. Lily and Liam came racing towards me on their little feet, their eyes much like Damian's, fixed on the plate of pancakes I held. "Hey! Please slow down, guys," I called when Lily, still running, looked over her shoulder and screeched excitedly when she saw Damian. Damian was chasing them with Liam's favourite stuffed animal. "Slow down! Slow down!" I called more loudly as the twins approached me. “You’ll hurt yourself if you keep running around!” At the same time, they got to me and clutched my dress, giggling. I glared at Damian, who gave me a boyish, unrepentant grin. "Liam! Lily!" I said, turning my attention back to my kids. "How many times have I told you to stop running in the house? And Damian-" "Yes, sweetheart?" "You ar
THREE MONTHS LATER DAMIAN "Oh, come on!" I muttered to myself as, for what felt like the umpteenth time, my fingers slipped on my silk tie. I had tied knots, dozens, even hundreds of times before. But this time, I couldn't even manage to tie a decent one. I knew what the problem was, though. Apart from the fact that my hands were sweaty, I was anxious and nervous. Seeing as I had gotten wedded once before, one would have thought that I was used to the whole process by now. This time was the first time, in a way, the first phase of my new beginning with Amelia. "My wife," I said aloud, pausing to stare at my reflection in the mirror. A smile lifted the corners of my mouth. The word 'wife' did have a nice ring to it. Amelia was still technically my wife, but today, she became mine for real, not only in name. And it wasn’t like our first wedding, which concluded in minutes and was void of any emotions. "Hey!" I flinched a little and turned to the door, then shot an irr
THREE MONTHS LATER Noah's head throbbed. It banged like the world's noisest drummers were having a nonstop concert in it. His eyes felt like they were going to bulge out of their sockets as he walked-no- stumbled his way out of the bar he had been getting wasted in for hours. "Out of my way, you," Noah growled, shoving someone out of his way. "What the- Watch where you're going," the man he had pushed shouted. “Such a fucking asshole.” If only everything wasn't spinning so fast, Noah would have gone back to plant his fist in that asshole's face. It might have made him feel slightly better, hurting someone. Hate burned within him. He hated his life. He hated this noisy, shitty bar he had chosen to get drunk in. He hated every freaking thing. Eager to get some fresh air, Noah hastened his steps the closer he got to the door. He had just gotten outside when he lost his footing and- THUD! He fell on his face, gasping for breath, inhaling the smell of dust on the cold f
DAMIAN I looked up the stairs, checking to see if she was heading down the stairs. She wasn't. Not yet. What a surprise she would get tonight, I thought. With what was no doubt a goofy smile on my face, I touched the ring safely nestling in a box deep in the linings of my pocket. It felt like lead was there, a pound of it. I felt my smile slip a little bit as I thought of what this night would bring. I was nervous as hell about proposing to Amelia even though I was entirely sure that she would not refuse me. I wanted to do it right. I wanted the moment to be perfect for the both of us. Sighing, I willed my lips to speak the right words when the time came to declare my love for her, to ask her to marry me. Perhaps a simple 'I love you. Will you marry me?' would be best. Or not. The direct approach wasn't always the best, especially in romantic situations. "What are you shaking your head for?" Amelia asked in a voice I could detect the humour in. I raised my head to lo
AMELIAWith a slightly shaky hand, I pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at my sweaty brow. I had been taking deep, steady breaths for the past few minutes, but it had done nothing to alleviate my nervousness. I didn't think any woman had been this nervous to tell the father of his child that she was pregnant. Damian was unwittingly making my nervousness a hundred times worse the longer he stayed away. What was he still doing up there anyway?I straightened and straightened the placemats on the dining table for what felt like the umpteenth time. And then I heard his approaching footsteps and immediately stood straight. "Where's the food?" Damian said cheerfully, standing just inside the door and looking around. "In a- in a minute," I said. "I wanted you to come down first. I didn't want your food to get cold."I stumbled into the kitchen and stumbled back out. My hands trembled so badly that I almost dropped a dish cover on Damian's foot."Sorry. Sorry," I apologized as I caught i
AMELIAI turned my head a little to get a good look at the wall clock and saw it was just a quarter past eight. Good. I nodded. The gossip show would start soon, and I was amped for it. I adjusted until I was very comfortable in my seat and took yet another bite of popcorn. On the big television, an ad for a new washing machine was being aired, and then my phone pinged, signalling that it was time for the show. I grabbed the remote and quickly changed the channel. Just as I did, the familiar soundtrack of the gossip talk show came on.The words 'STRAIGHT TALK WITH MILES' popped up on the screen in bold caps. The message grew more extensive and slowly faded into the background. What appeared next on the screen was a live studio in which was seated a tall, youngish man, very much like Anton in looks. I immediately recognized him as Anton's friend in the talk show biz, the one who was going to help me dig up dirt on Noah, the one who was to talk about Noah today on his show based on a
AMELIA Noah got to his feet seconds after the initial surprise of my rejection had worn off. Luckily, I was already walking to the mall as fast as possible. When I looked back, I saw him coming after me. I increased my pace but managed to get into the building with Noah right at my heels, his face as red as a tomato. Red with rage. "Stop him," I said to the first security personnel I saw. I pointed to Noah, who was quickly approaching the mall's entrance. That man is after me. He wants to cause a scene. Make sure he doesn't get in here. Quickly!" Thankfully, the security guard didn't ask any questions. He just nodded to his colleague on his other side. They hurried to Noah and intercepted him before he could get to the door. "I'm sorry you can't go in, sir," the guard I had spoken to told him and turned back to glance at me. I nodded, indicating that I was content with their actions. Noah was too busy staring at me even to notice that one of the guards had his hand on his
AMELIA "We'll see soon then, Mrs Donovan." I blinked and once more, turned to focus on Engineer Sam who I had quite a lengthy meeting with. His team was hanging back a little, deeply engrossed in some conversation about the amusement park project. "Yes of course," I replied, with a glance at my watch. “I have somewhere to be. Good bye.” I was barely focused during the meeting, my mind drifting to all the things in my schedule. There were several other things I needed to do. As I left the project site, I waved absently at Sam who walked off with his team as I dug out my phone to call Rose. "Ma'am," she said when she picked up. "Are you stopping over by the bakery today?" "No. I'm afraid not. Do you have your notepad with you?" "Always." "Good. I got a call some hours ago from the office of the CEO of Sharecare. He's celebrating the 10th year anniversary of his company soon. He wants us to handle the cakes and the event in general. So what do you think?" Rose reele
NOAH I stopped typing on my computer long enough to adjust the shirt I was wearing. I felt uncomfortable as I tugged the fabric, feeling unusually small in my shirt. I sighed, a deep, weary sigh. That was what came of a reduced appetite, worry, many late nights of staying awake thinking of how best to get a lasting solution to all the problems I had been having. I made a mental note to myself to eat more and hit the gym before my enemies noticed my weight loss- if they hadn't already. I hoped they hadn't. There was nothing as aggravating as a well timed news headline to set the sharks at my door. Sitting here, I could just picture the sort of headlines those news vultures would print. BUSINESS MOGUL NOAH CARTER GOES TO PIECES FOLLOWING RUMOURS OF BANKRUPTCY. I clenched my fists, and found myself already getting worked up over the imaginary headline. Recently, a lot of news had been circulating around me. I would be damned before they printed something like that about me