Yours, Forever

Chapter 28

Damien nodded and managed a smile, releasing the breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Now, back to business. What were you saying again?" Mr Ramon added.

Damien could still feel the tension thick in the air, but he ignored it and resumed the conversation with Mr Ramon.

At the back of his mind though, he knew he had to end all of this.

He needed to find Madison, talk to her. He needed to right some wrongs maybe, and then move on with his life.

Worst off, he needed to resume the investigation. The sooner he sorted everything out with Madison, the better it would be for everyone.

He knew he had gotten lucky today. But how long would this last? Mrs Ramon was obviously interested and concerned about Madison, so this wouldn't be the last time she would ask him about him, since her first opportunity had been thwarted by her husband. Now knowing he wasn't in her good books, the last thing Damien wanted was any form of feud with the Ramons.

As they finally continued to eat in silence, Damien could feel Mrs Ramon's eyes on him every once in a while.

He could feel his inner self shrink under her burning gaze, but to his brain it was a quick reminder that he had to get on with the investigation and bring things back to normal.

.......

LONDON

Madison peered down at the address scribbled on the piece of paper, Mrs Sterling had handed her this morning.

She had heard them discussing about a vacancy in a bakery downtown. Madison recognized the name of the bakery but she couldn't quite remember where it was.

When she asked them for more information regarding the job, they had encouraged her to go for it. Claire her neighborhood friend, had wanted to go for it, but she was heavily pregnant and the bakery had a policy against maternal mothers, so she urged Madison to go for it instead.

They had given her the address earlier today, and Madison saw that it was a few miles away from where she lived.

When she had packed up everything she needed, including some certificates of employment from her previous jobs, even the brief one at New York, although she knew she might not need it, she boarded a taxi to the bakery.

Madison looked down at the address again as the taxi dropped her, and sure enough it was the same.

The bakery was not as small as Madison had expected. It was actually quite big, and Madison realized that the reason why the name sounded so familiar was because she had been here sometime before. Probably to get something, she couldn't quite remember but then she recalled that she knew someone here.

She smiled widely as she walked in, her eyes sweeping all over the buzzing small reception for the person she was looking for.

She moved over to her table when she sighted her, chuckling as she punched her friend in the rib, "Gina Adams."

Gina looked up with a frown which immediately vanished as soon as she saw who it was, her eyes instantly widening in surprise.

"Oh my goodness, Madison?" She yelled, wiping her flour-coated hand on her apron as she grinned at her, and quickly they both caught themselves in an embraced, as they regarded each other carefully.

Gina laughed, "Where on earth have you been? It's been so long. It's also really nice to see you. You look great!"

Madison laughed too, "So do you. It's been months. How are you and the kids? And Thomas? God, I've missed you. It's been a while since you came over to my place."

"They're all good." Gina nodded, "We're surviving like always. I've been really busy. I'll make out time to come visit when I don't have a lot of work. What about you? I heard from the neighborhood that you traveled for a while. How did it go?"

Madison swallowed. She wanted to completely forget about her trip to New York, and she wanted to let it go until it stopped haunting her memory forever, but always came up. Every single time, one way or the other, almost as if it was mocking or haunting her. It would always be in her mind.

"It was great." She finally managed to blurt, "It's was okay. How have you been? How's work?" She quickly asked again, desperate to change the subject.

"Work is the same. Oh, there's this new recipe we've been working on. You should try it..." Gina suddenly trailed off, stopping as she frowned, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Is something wrong?" Madison asked, a bad feeling running down her spine.

"Seeing you today just reminded me of something too. I should have remembered the minute you stepped in here, but it's been so long I saw you and I just had to greet."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Over the past few weeks, some strange men have come into town." She paused, looking around as if to make sure no one was listening.

She brought her voice a notch lower, pulling Madison closer to her, "They've been asking about you, and your family."

Madison gasped in shock, "W-what? I-I don't understand, asking about me? What are you talking about?"

Gina nodded, a look of concern on her face, "They were here a few weeks ago scouring for information about the Connors. From what I heard from some of my colleagues, they've been asking around town as well. I don't know why they didn't go to Kettlesworth, but they seem to be snooping about looking for any information about you and your family."

Madison was speechless, fear twisting her insides as she instinctively cast a gaze around the building.

All of a sudden she had the eerie feeling that she was being watched. Scared, her eyes swept over the room, but nothing looked off and no one seemed to be paying her any close attention safe for Gina in front of her.

Her heart was beginning to pound furiously in her chest at the same time.

Who could possibly be looking for her? Her mind raced as different thoughts popped in her head. She wondered who she could possibly have offended.

No, no, no.

Not now, Madison thought. She was just trying to piece her life back together, after everything she had gone through these last few weeks, and she definitely didn't need this.

Not now! She thought again, her chest tightening and it suddenly became difficult to breathe as she held a hand to it.

"Madison, is everything okay? Why do you think these people are looking for you? Do you know anything?" Gina asked curiously, but Madison didn't respond, her head still swimming with thoughts.

She needed to leave here. She needed to leave now. She didn't care that she had come to look for a vacancy, or that she had to scour for a job to keep herself afloat, she just had to get out of this building.

If people had been searching for her then they could be anywhere. Fuck! They could even be following her.

Turning to Gina she said, "I-I need to leave. It was nice seeing you again."

Without waiting for her friend to respond, she hurried out of the bakery, bumping into workers and muttering apologies as she ran out.

"Take care!" Gina called out as she watched Madison flee the bakery, but Madison was too buried in her thoughts to hear.

She needed to get as far away from here as possible.

.......

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