LOGINChapter Five
Damien paced up and down the hallway, outside the hospital room. He could not understand why he was so agitated but there was something about seeing your wife, unconscious, in a dead faint and also in another man's arms. It rattled him. Her white face and limp body had scared him as he watched the man carry her in his arms, bridal style. He stopped pacing and looked ahead, his brows coming together in a huge frown and a sour taste came into his mouth, as he stared at the man who had saved his wife. Zaire Ludovic. C.E.O of SERENE, A MultiBillion-dollar Fashion and Entertainment Company and one of the top rated fashion company in Emerald City. He was Damien's biggest Rival. The Romero family owned MAGIC, another top rated fashion and Entertainment company in the City. It had been in the family for years and was the source of all their wealth. The MAGIC group had other subsidiaries in other industries - Retail, Education, Manufacturing, Sports etc but MAGIC Touch, which embodied their Fashion and Entertainment Industry was the epitome of the MAGIC Group. The business summit at the Reign Gardens was open to all business icons and reputable people of the business world Zaire was one of them. Zaire was standing erect, neither looking sideways but facing the door of Lana's hospital room. Damien watched him with narrowed eyes. What the hell was he doing here?, he thought. True, he had brought Lana to the hospital but his job was done. He should leave, already. Damien did not like the way Zaire was standing guard over his wife's hospital room. Lana was his wife, not his, Dammit! He started walking towards him, to tell him to get the hell away from his wife's hospital room door and out of their lives, when suddenly, the door to Lana's room opened up and he stopped in midstride as Lana walked out and walked towards them. "Lana, are you okay?" He went towards her hurriedly, placing himself between her and Zaire. Lana gave him a withering look. "What's it to you? My wellbeing is none of your concern, last I remembered!" Her tone was scathing and her eyes cold as she stared up at him. Damien was taken aback by her coldness and was even more shocked at his reaction to her coldness. He felt nervous, as though something precious was about to slip from his fingers or had already slipped from his fingers. "Let's go home" he started to say but Lana ignored him. He saw the direction of her gaze and his eyes flashed with anger when he saw that she was watching Zaire. The way her expression softened as she stared at Zaire, made his blood boil. Without thinking, he grabbed her arm, and pulled her to himself "I said, Let's go home!" He hissed in her ears and Lana struggled in his grip. "Let go of me, you jerk!" She struggled and suddenly, she was free. Zaire reached out and pulled her to his side, breaking Damien's grip. "She said, let go, Romero. Why are you manhandling a lady?" Zaire's voice boomed out and Lana who was by his side could feel the vibrations from his voice. Seeing that she was not struggling in his grasp, almost made Damien go mad. He saw red and almost exploded. "That's my wife, Ludovic! Take your hands off her!" "I don't care if she's your wife. She's a lady and she does not want to be with you at the moment!" Zaire smirked at him before turning to Lana and saying softly "Let me take you." Damien could not believe his eyes, when Lana glared at him before nodding slightly. Zaire smiled and led her out of the hospital. Damien swore as his fists clenched and his face reddened as he watched Zaire lead his wife, away from him. "Damn you, Lana!" *** As soon as Lana stepped into the house, Vera stood up from the sofa where she and Rina had been sitting, and walked towards her "I thought you were going to be hospitalized for a long time but now I know you only pulled that stunt to embarrass my son!." She wagged a finger in front of Lana as she spoke. Lana merely glanced at her and started making her way up the stairs to her bedroom. "I'm talking to you!" Vera roughly pulled Lana back and glared at her "You lowlife! I allowed you to marry my son because of that old wretch and now you dare to disrespect me?!" "Don't you dare call Laura that" Lana fired back and Vera was taken aback at her sudden fierceness "Although, she did that for a good cause, I was a fool for going along with it." This was a new side to Lana that she had never seen before, and it shocked Vera. Normally, Lana stood like a coward when Vera berated her and had never raised her voice to her. Vera wondered if Lana had gone mad. "Stop acting as though you didn't manipulated her into it" Vera threw back at her, her arms crossed "I know your type , you gold digging lowlife." Lana smiled bitterly. "Well then, I'm sure it will gladden your heart to know I'm correcting the mistake Laura made" she calmly said, her eyes glittering like ice "I'm getting a divorce!" This revelation shocked both women and Rina actually stood up and walked towards Lana cautiously, a sly smile on her face. 'This was perfect' she thought 'Everything is going according to my plan.' However, Vera had her eyes narrowed at her. She scoffed and eyed Lana with disdain. "A divorce? really? So you can get half of my son's inheritance, right?!" "I don't care about his inheritance!" Lana asserted "And I don't care if you believe me or not, I'm getting that divorce!" "You're going nowhere!" A voice thundered from the entrance and they watched as Damien strode towards them. His face was red and his grey eyes were flashing with anger as he remembered how Lana had left with Zaire at the hospital "How dare you bring up divorce?! After you manipulated my grandmother into withholding my inheritance?!" Damien leaned down and spoke fiercely to Lana. Lana stared him down, unwilling to back down. "I have no idea what you're saying, and I don't care!" She yelled back at him, and he was shocked at the fire in her eyes "I won't stay under this roof with your little whore!" "Well, you got yourself into it, you conniving bitch, so deal with it!" Vera fired as she went to stand beside her son. They all stood before Lana, glaring at her. Lana was undaunted, however. She was leaving this house even if it meant she was smuggled out. She thought of Laura and her heart clenched with sorrow but she could not take this anymore. She would explain to Laura later. "Excuse me, sir" A voice interrupted the tense moment and they watched as Damien's assistant, Liam, walked up to him. "What is it?" Damien snarled, his angry eyes never leaving Lana's face but the next words that came out of his assistant's mouth, had them all staring at him in shock. "Your grandmother, sir. She's dead!"Chapter Five Hundred And Seventy Eight.Epilogue.“What exactly do we need to do now?” Diego asked, his voice tinged with worry and tiredness.“Pay our employees,” the regional head said quietly, as he rubbed his eyes tiredly, “But we’ve delayed payroll once already. Banks won’t extend the credit line again.”There was an oppressive silence in the living room.Damien cleared his throat but he did not speak. No one spoke.They had survived scandals, betrayals, even Zaire himself—but this felt different.This felt final.In the past few days, Damien realized that he was scared. He woke up with fear clogged up in his throat, and gazing back at him in the bathroom mirror.He thought about their future, about Lana, about Arielle…Was he going to fail them again?He knew Lana would never leave him, but damned if he did not want to give her some kind of protection, some kind of solidity.She’d done enough already.“If we sell the overseas subsidiary,” Liam uttered, “we might buy six months.”
Chapter Five Hundred And Seventy-SevenTwo Months Later.The Mercedes drove straight into the driveway of the Romero Villa, and stopped before the house.Damien and Lana got down from the car, and stared up at the house.The Romero Villa looked before them, still as beautiful as always.Home.They had refused to move back to the Romero mansion, even after Maya had been arrested and chased out of it.She was serving her term in prison now fur impersonation and colluding with an interns criminal like Zaire Ludovic.It was such a pity that they’d have to sell the Villa off though.Lana let out a huge sigh at the thought of that, just as Damien came to to her. They linked arms as they started walking up the courtyard to it.The courtyard was empty.Romero Villa had had to let go of most of their bodyguards and staff these past few months, due to delayed payroll.Lana tried not to think about it as they walked towards the door.They were only a few feet away from the front door, when it bu
Chapter Five Hundred And Seventy-SixZaire and Alex was already running off towards their helicopter which was running and waiting for them.Zaire’s heart was beating fast in his throat, as he ran.“Damn it!” He yelled in outrage as he ran.Suddenly, cars appeared in front of him, and surrounded him as they skidded to a stop, making Zaire stop as well.He looked around at the cars, as armed police men came out, then went into position, pointing their guns at him.The sound of a loudspeaker blasted through the air, making Zaire wince from the noise.“Zaire Ludovic, Don’t move! You’re surrounded!”“On the ground now!”Zaire looked around at them, his eyes wild with terror, and his hands raised in fear.At that moment, he’d lost every one of his bravado and courage.He could not believe that he had been caught. He could not believe that he was not going to get away with destroying Damien and Romero Empire.“Impossible!” He muttered to himself, “ I have to escape. No, I must escape!”But
Chapter Five Hundred And Seventy-Five“We just need to call the cops and get him out of there!” The others looked at each other and suddenly realized that Diego was right.They had not called the cops on Zaire earlier even when they had evidence of his criminal activities, not only in Romero but from his escapades around the world. This was because they were afraid of what would happen to Damien who was still under Zaire’s controls.Now that he was out, there was no doubt that they needed to make their move now.“I’m calling the cops now.” Liam said, already whipping out his phone, “Let’s end this!”“Hold up,” Paul said, placing a hand on Liam’s own, “Isn’t this going to cause serious trouble for Romero? We have to be careful!”“I think we will be able to recover,” Lana uttered. “We will have the shareholders help us.”Damien shook his head, “The shareholders are in his side,” he uttered, “No one listens to me.”“What?!” Lana was infuriated, “How could they do that?!”She could not b
Chapter Five Hundred And Seventy-FourDamien stood in the middle of the living room, his hands on his hips as he thought deeply.The others stood around him, everyone seeing how he was taking the news of Zaire being his half-brother.It was definitely not a pleasing thought.Who would want to be brothers, even half-brothers, with a maniac who had done half the things Zaire had done to them?No one would want to share blood with someone as psychopathic as Zaire Ludovic.But it did make some things clearer to Damien.He had always wondered why Zaire had hated him so much and had thought it was because he wanted Lana as well.That was why he’d had her kidnapped but now he knew that something deeper must have fueled those acts.He was probably seeking vengeance for everything he’d had to go through in his life outside of being a Romero.Damien imagined life must not have been pleasant for the child back then who was thrown out with his mother. Zaire had harbored such deep thoughts all alo
Chapter Five Hundred And Seventy-Three“He will only cause you sorrow, Lana! Why can’t you see it? I am the only one good enough for you!”Lana was disgusted with his little act.“Get him out of here!” She ordered and the security guards nodded at once.“Yes ma’am!” The chorused as they hoisted Adrian up bodily and began moving him towards the door.Adrian struggled against their hold, “Stop this and listed to me, Lana! It’s all over! I am the only one for you! I love you!”“What the fuck are you doing?!” Damien thundered in outrage, “Get this bastard out of here at once!”The guards started to put in more effort, but with some extraordinary advantage, Adrian managed to stall.He glared at Damien, “You think you’re all that, right?!” He barked at Damien, “You’re a goner, Damien Romero. Zaire has completely taken everything away from you, right from under your nose because you were too stupid ! Hahaha!”He let out an evil laugh, while still struggling with the men. Damien remained calm







