"Come in." Damien said as a knock resounded at his office door.
Without waiting to see who was walking into his office, he resumed his typing on the computer, sighing when he came across some errors on the document.
He had been so caught up in other things this week that he was unable to concentrate on work, hence all these errors.
For the first time since this whole Madison saga started, he felt disappointed in himself for misplacing most of his priorities.
Now though, he was determined to focus more on work and let everything else be, at-least for the time being.
When he finally looked up from the computer, he saw that Alvarez was the one who walked in, and instantly the atmosphere became tense.
The memory of their unresolved tiff from the last time flashing through his head, Damien kept a straight face, choosing not to say anything as he was equally annoyed about the way Alvarez had spoken to him the last time.
"Yes?" He snapped adding, "I'm quite busy so whatever you want to say, make it quick."
Alvarez stared at him for a few moments, and then with an emotion in his eyes Damien could not decipher, he dipped his hands into his trouser pockets and procured an envelope. He dropped the envelope on the table in front of Damien.
"That's the money for your girlfriend's dress. Now the both of you don't have to keep having sleepless nights, over some mere two thousand dollars." Alvarez remarked cuttingly, and Damien could feel the sarcasm drip from every word.
Damien's face flushed and he felt anger flow through him, "You're speaking to me this way because of everything that happened, aren't you?" He asked.
Alvarez shrugged, "I don't know what you mean. Everything that happened was because of the dress. So now you have the money back, maybe you'd be satisfied."
Damien felt a need to snap back at him but he held himself back, "Hand it over to Kathrine and not to me. It's her dress, have you forgotten? You know where to find her." He snapped, and with that he concentrated on his work again, but his ears were still drumming from the initial anger.
He heard Alvarez scoff as he picked the envelope back up and placed it back in his pocket, "Of course, why did I even bother? I almost forgot how great you were at diverting your responsibilities. I'll take my leave now."
Damien could not hold back the anger at this point.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He asked, glaring at Alvarez, who quickly turned back to face him as if he had some speech prepared for him.
"It's not the first time, nor the second, or the third. You always do this. At this point, I wonder why I'm still surprised. It's the exact same way you treated Madison, not even bothering to hear her side of the story, diverting your responsibility and not even thinking of the proper thing to do back then at the event. You just cast her aside like she didn't matter, disgracing her in front of everyone, ruining a bit of your reputation to if I might add. Well, you should also be satisfied now, she's gone. She has left for London, and out of your life for good."
Damien looked startled at this piece of information, all his anger suddenly forgotten, as a feeling of angst cut through him, "She's gone? When?"
Alvarez glared at him, "Why does it matter when? After everything you did to her she obviously couldn't take it anymore that's why she left. Besides she has a life over there, and away from you if I remember vividly." As Alvarez said those words, he looked Damien over, "You know, I still don't get how it's possible for you to do everything you did to Madison. A woman you claimed to love in the past for that matter. I mean, I have evidences, and I still recalled how you treated her like she was the one who gave you life. People change, I shouldn't be surprised. That doesn't change the fact, that you have no right whatsoever to treat her the way you did."
"I've told you a million times that I don't want to talk about her!" Damien half yelled, even though he was the one that had asked about her.
Hearing her name distracted him, messed up his head, and the fact that Alvarez was questioning the love he had for her in the past upset him deeply.
He had loved her so much, even more than his life, but he could never forget the deep cut betrayal she'd given him, prior to his leave. She had treated him like trash, throwing their relationship in the gutter, so what did it matter.
He didn't want to think about it, he didn't!
"Why not? You had no problem making more than three weeks of her life here miserable, so why shouldn't I talk about her? And all this because of a silly misunderstanding, you don't even know the full story about? There's so much more to this story, and if you had been kinder towards her, maybe she would have explained. You and I know that pretty Maddie wasn't only like that. Whatever she must have done to you, something must have warranted it."
The full story? Damien frowned, confused at the same time. Pretty Maddie, not like that? He wondered, his mind spinning, as he tried to grasp what Alvarez was trying to say.
"What did she tell you? Tell me everything you know, I want to know."
Alvarez shook his head, "I don't know too. She was adamant, she wouldn't tell me. But I could tell it was something huge, by the worried look that was always on her face. Something happened! Back then In Kettlesworth, while we were trying to move on with our lives here in New York, Madison was going through hell..."
Damien felt curiosity and guilt poke at his heart. Hearing that she had left, made him feel like he really had gone too far. For her to go all the way to London to escape all of this, she must have felt quite terrible.
It was to sudden, to soon, and coupled with the fact that there were so many things he didn't know, he was beginning to regret his actions.
All through her stay here, he hadn't for one day thought of talking to her. No matter what had happened in the past, at least for good times sake, he should have talked to her, asked questions and...
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
"Don't curse and bang your hands on the table, like you care now, Damien. The deed has been done, and she's gone." Alvarez spat as he watched Damien get lost in his thoughts, "You know what I've realized from all of this huh?"
Damien didn't say anything, his brain awash, and he heard Alvarez said the worst words that were never true.
"In all these, I came to realize that you never really loved that poor girl."
Damien glared at him in shock, his fingers tightening over the edge of his desk.
He wanted to stand up, grip Alvarez by the chest and warn him never to question his relationship with Madison. It wouldn't matter if he stood up now, and told Alvarez that Madison was the only woman he had ever loved.
Yes, he had been in relationships here and there, but most of them ladies were just after his money, or his looks, or his prowess in bed and nothing more.
None of them had ever loved him the way his Maddie did.
None of them ever gave him that spark he got whenever he was with Maddie!
Even that night, while looking into her eyes, recognizing that strawberry blonde curls from time past, he had felt the spark again but he had tamped it down due to the rage he was feeling.
"As usual you are saying nothing, which just proves my theory all the more." Alvarez continued again, "If you did love Madison, you would never have done all this. All you did was use her like a pawn in your plot of revenge, against the Connors. You knew how terribly it would hurt her family, bruise their ego if they saw how Madison was being humiliated in public for the whole world to see. That's why you pulled that shit you did at the club, and the exact same way you had used her back then. You knew Mr Connor hated you and your father with apassion, and that's why you dated his daughter just to spite him! Makes me wonder, if the gossips back when we were younger were all true. Why Mason resented you not only for sleeping with his ex girlfriend, but also dating his sister." Alvarez shook his head, "I thought you were better than this, Damien. But apparently I was wrong."
Damien stood rigidly, his hands shaking with anger as he faced Alvarez.
"I have never been so disappointed in anyone like I am in you at the moment. I expected better from—"
"ENOUGH!" Damien yelled, striking the desk with an open palm as he glared at Alvarez, his heart pounding, "They're lies! All of it! Everything you are thinking about my relationship with Maddie are all lies..."
Finally he said her name, and his heart squeezing, he continued, "How dare you question what Madison and I shared? How would you believe that I could use Madison that time? Didn't you see the way I treated her? How could you say I pretended to love her? Is that how low you think of me?"
His heart pumped with anger and hurt as he stared at his best friend, "Why would you even say that? I did love Madison, more than anything else. I have never, ever loved any woman the way I loved her. She was everything to me, Alvarez! I loved her so—"
The sound of his office door swinging open cut him off, and left him gaping in shock at the figure walking in.
Annoyed, he faced the door to dismiss whoever it was but nearly reeled back in shock when he saw Katherine storm in, a furious look on her face.
.......
KATHERINE
Katherine shook from head to toe as a rush of anger shot through her.
She couldn't believe what she was hearing, or what she had just heard whilst eavesdropping.
At first she wanted to leave when she realized Damien had a visitor, but when the secretary had told her that it was Alvarez her interest piqued for a strange reason.
Then she had walked to the office, and heard them talking about someone named Madison.
The name sounding oddly familiar, almost too familiar, she had thought and thought before it finally clicked in.
The same bitch from the dinner event, that had ruined her dress. The same one that Damien had humiliated at his club. The same one whose picture Damien had safely hidden in a drawer, somewhere at his house. He had told her that she was an old friend and that talking about her upset him, so why?
She had proceeded to listen more closely, ears on the door, and nearly staggered to the ground when she heard Alvarez mention that Damien and Madison used to be together.
That they had been lovers, but Katherine chose not to believe it even after everything she'd heard. She was still in denial.
It couldn't be... it couldn't possibly be. Damien had told her the whole story. He told her everything, that he hated Madison's family for doing something bad to him in that past and that was all there was to this case. It was the truth she wanted to believe...
And just at the last time believing her inner voice, she heard Damien yell, "I have never, ever, loved any woman the way I loved her!"
What the heck! Now she knew there was more to the story that met the eye, and anger raging through her, she swung the door open, barging in and staring at the two men who had suddenly cut off their conversation.
"Someone explain to me what the hell is going on here!" She yelled, her hands clenching as she glared at Damien.
"Oh, good, you're here." She heard Alvarez say, a look of annoyance coating his face as soon as he saw her.
She had always known that the hefty bodyguard or security man rather disliked her and she had been pretending to be nice all this while for Damien's sake, but now she wanted to blurt out to him that she felt only hatred towards him too.
She was barely tolerating him too, and as she opened her mouth to retort the words, he fished out an envelope from his pocket, and tossed it at her like it was some piece of trash.
Watching the envelope fall to the floor, he spat out, "There! That's for your dress, with some extra money for damages. Now you have your whole fortunes dress back, and hopefully you can relax."
Without waiting to see her reaction, or hear what she had to say, he stormed out of office and banged the door behind him.
Fury built up to her neck as she stared after him, but he wasn't her main problem at the moment.
Katherine turned to Damien who was still taken aback by her intrusion, and the obvious look of deceit and guilt in his eyes infuriated her the more.
"Look Katherine I can..."
"No!" She cut him off, "Whatever it is you want to say, I demand to know the truth. I need an explanation for what just went on inside this office. I overheard you two talking right before I walked in here, so don't you dare even consider lying to me."
"I can explain. Just calm down for—"
"Explain what!" Katherine yelled, "What exactly do you want to explain to me? How you blatantly lied to my face? How you left out the most important part of it all, that she was your ex? How dare you lie right to my face and keep something like that away from me? How dare you make me look like a fool?" She seethed.
"Look, I know I lied, and I'm so sorry about that. I should have been honest with you right from the start. It's true... Madison and I were together. But like I said before, it was years ago. We've been separated for a long time."
Kathrine scoffed, "I see you still take me for a fool, don't you? Even after I asked you countless times about your relationship with her which you denied, over and over again. Do you think I'm an idiot you can manipulate? You want to claim this woman means absolutely nothing to you, but I'm pretty sure the whole darn office heard you profess your love for her less than two fucking minutes ago! Okay tell me she means nothing to you." She fumed, arms folded waiting for him to say something but he didn't.
"Oh now, I get it."
He shook his head, running a finger through his hair, "Katherine, please. I'm sorry, Madison has no place in my life anymore. I hate her and her family, and I want to take them down. Madison is a thing of the past—"
"Oh, please Damien. You can spare me the elaborate lies."
Nodding her head as thoughts ran through her mind, she looked back up, "This is the last time I'll ever question you about her, so you don't have to worry. Since you're obviously quite desperate and you keep lying about her right to my face, I'll carry out my own investigation, find out what I have to and what I need to. And you already know that I never bluff. Let's see who the smart one is now."
"What do you mean Katherine?" Damien asked, looking at her with dimmed eyes but she just smirked and replied, "She is a thing of the past, and I'm the present one in your life and I'm not going anywhere. The world would know that pretty soon!"
She was done being deceived and lied to. Whatever she needed to know about this Madison character, she would find out for herself, and nothing absolutely nothing... was going to stop her.
The shocked look on Damien's face told her that the last thing he wanted was for her to dig into his past, but she had made up her mind already and that was exactly what she was going to do.
Casting one last glare at him, before he could say anything, she let out a hiss, and walked swiftly to the door storming out, and leaving him to whatever thoughts he had in his head.
.......
Thanks for reading. 💕