KATHERINE
Slicing red apples before eating them usually calmed Katherine down, the reason being because that she was terrible at anything that concerned kitchen work.
So if she kept struggling to cut the shiny fruit, it would take her mind off other troubling things today, but today it did little to calm her down. If anything, it only made her think of other satisfying things she could be doing with the small kitchen knife.
As she deliberately cut through each slice, carefully as though it was a kind of ritual, her eyes flew over to the pictures laid on the table in front of her.
The picture irritated her to no end, and the huge grins on the faces of Damien and his ex lover seemingly mocking her. Her anger beginning to resurface again, she kicked hard against the lowly kitchen table making every single thing she had struggled to peel, along with the plates to fall to the floor, clanging heavily and making loud noises.
"Fuck!" She yelled, grabbing up the pictures and ripping through them. After hours of searching through Damien's room, she had finally found the small box where he had stashed the rest of the pictures from his childhood.
She had known he would have more memories of that bitch, and she had been right when she had seen the small box. Her heart had pounded in anger when she continuously pulled out different pictures, with Madison always present in each of them.
They were either hugging, kissing, playing or doing something else that didn't resonate with Katherine, and only pushed her fury to the core.
It was obvious in those pictures how close they had been, how much he had loved her, and yet he had blatantly lied to her. He had pretended not to care about her anymore, but Katherine was not fooled by that act anymore.
If he didn't care just like he said, then why would he stash away all their memories after all these years? Why would he still keep it?
There was still something else that was very unclear to her.
She knew that Damien had been from a lower class and status in the past. She had even heard this from Damien himself, but he never told her the full story, and whenever she brought it up he would always wave of her concerns saying it was a thing of the past but now she knew better. There was more to this story than he was letting on.
The Mr Connor he always talked about was his ex's father, and whatever he had done to Damien must have so despicable to make Damien hate him so much till this day.
She needed answers, she needed to know.
What had this man done to make Damien burn with so much hatred? To make him strive and work his way to success twice as hard?
All these were unanswered questions that Damien kept avoiding, ever single time.
Also what part had Madison played in this? Whatever it was, that made Damien this ruthless, well as long as they were related to Madison in some way, then she decided that she had to know.
It was starting to get more complicated and baffling with each passing day, and now it occurred to Katherine that she really didn't know Damien as much as she thought she did. His past was still a mystery, one she was yet to uncover and she didn't like it at all.
But...it wouldn't be for long again. She had the right resources in her reach, soon she would have all the information she yearned for.
As she sighted a picture of Madison grinning as she stood in the sunlight, she angrily picked it up. Her eyes moved over Madison's strawberry blonde curls and she hissed.
Katherine couldn't even understand what Damien had seen in her.
She wasn't even that pretty, Katherine mused. She herself, was ten times hotter and classier than this bitch, so what exactly was the problem? Why would Damien still consider her, or even think about his ex when he already had someone like her?
She shook her head violently, as she mumbled under her breath, "No, no!"
She would not let some tramp come between her and Damien. Things were going great, things were going just fine with her and Damien, but now this bitch had decided to show up out of the blue.
As she squeezed the picture of Madison in her hand, she wondered how she had not even noticed a thing.
She should have known. That dinner event, the way he had stared at Madison as if he had seen a ghost, the first time.
How Damien suddenly began to act so strange, so distracted and inattentive. She should have known it had something to do with that waitress. If she had been more observant, she would have noticed and done everything in her power to keep that bitch far away from Damien.
Damien was hers, and only hers and no one would take him away from her.
Now after she heard the exchange between Damien and Alvarez the other day in his office, she had gotten scared. She was starting to feel insecure, as it was so obvious that Damien still had feelings for Madison.
The passion in his voice, the anger when Alvarez questioned his love for her. It had cut through Katherine's heart like a butcher knife, and that's when she began to have these waning doubt.
What if somehow those two reconnected? What if some stupid play of nature somehow made Damien realize that, he wanted Madison back?
What would now happen to her? What if Damien dumped her? What would she do, what would people say? He was planning on engaging her, her father was in talks with him, and now this?
No! It wouldn't happen, except she was dead and that was so unlikely.
That would not happen. She would stop it at all costs.
It wasn't even a probability anymore, and that's because she wouldn't let it. Whatever it would take to prevent anything from happening, to bring Damien back to his senses, then Katherine knew that she would do it all.
When a notification pinged her phone, she smiled staring at the screen seeing who it was.
Bringing it to her ear, she listened to the voice on the other line, nodding once as she replied, "I'll meet you there in ten."
As she hung up she slipped the phone back into her purse, taking her time in the mirror to smoothen out her hair and tie on the scarf. When she was done with that, she ran the red lipstick she had picked out over her lips twice, and then put on her designer sunglasses.
It was important that she would not be recognized at all, which explained why she was in these clothes she considered drab and too disgusting for her taste, save for the glasses.
But she was doing this for Damien, and to save her relationship, and because of that... Katherine would do just about anything to keep Damien all to herself.
.......
Katherine slowly pulled her car into the deserted car park, waiting a few minutes to observe the surroundings before she stepped out.
She could not afford to be seen, at all since she was somewhat popular with the paparazzi.
If that happened it would cause a lot of problems for her, and worse off if she was caught on camera in this attire and in such a lowly place, it would be cause for suspicion.
She waited in the car for a while, staring at the surroundings and seeing that the coast was clear, she grabbed up the magazine tabloids that sat in the passenger seat and walked out the car.
She pulled the scarf she had on closer to her face, as she marched toward the abandoned warehouse. She would usually never step foot into a place like this, but again she reminded herself that this was for Damien, and to put that bitch in her place.
Furiously, she squeezed the tabloid in her hand which was actually one of the gossips about Damien and Madison, almost tossing it angrily in a pool of muddy water nearby, but she held herself back since she would use make use of the pictures in it.
She made her way into the warehouse, immediately.
Katherine didn't even know what the people she had hired looked like, nor did she care.
She just needed people who were capable of doing the job she needed to, and clutching the duffel bag she held in her other hand tightly, she got into the warehouse.
The first person her eyes caught was a tall, beefy man. Muscular and tattooed, a cigarette hung lazily from the corner of his lip. His dark eyes raked Katherine from head to toe, and then he huffed.
Raising his fingers in a signal, three other men emerged from the corner of the building, all of them similarly dressed except for the one who had an eye patch.
Katherine exhaled in relief when she saw they had guns tucked safely in their pants. Good! It showed that they were people who could take care of themselves, and also they were perfect for the job.
She tossed the duffel bag on the nearest table, and said, That's half of the money as requested."
"Half?" The one who seemed to be the leader chuckled, "Sorry to break it to you princess, but that's not how we work around here."
Katherine knew very well that these men were trying to intimidate her, with their size and the underlying threats in their voices, but she would not be undermined. They had no idea what she was capable of at all.
Walking towards him until she was well in his face, she snatched off her sunglasses, "Now, this is how I do business. You get half, do your job, report back with tangible results, and then you get the rest of it. It's either a deal or it's not. Now, do we understand each other or would you like to keep talking?" She spat, her voice cold.
In response, he snatched the duffel bag, opening the zipper and nodding at the huge stack of bills it contained, he said gruffly obviously having no choice, "Okay."
"Good." Katherine said, tossing the tabloids in her hand to him and watching as he passed it round to the rest of his men, "Her name is Madison Connor, daughter of Mr and Mrs Connor. The only information I have on them is their location Birmingham. She lives in London or Birmingham, I don't even know but you are to find out."
The man nodded, "What kind of information are we digging for exactly?" He asked.
"Absolutely everything, anything at all you can get on them. Every single thing, their history, what they've been up to in the past eleven years, who has lived with them, scandals, rumors, stories. Anything at all. I need to know who the Connors are. Can you do that?"
He nodded, "Absolutely."
"Good. And as for the daughter..." Her jaw clenched as she thought of Madison, "Last I saw, she was in New York. I need you to find her, trace her, keep me updated on what she's up to. Find out every single thing you can about. Especially those she would want to keep a secret, and then we can deliberate on what to do to her." Katherine finished, her chest heaving.
It was time to bring the bitch down.
"Understood. Anything else?"
Katherine thought for a second, "None of this should ever be traced back to me. Inside the duffel bag you will find a burner phone. Whatever you find, you communicate to me through that phone. My number is saved there already."
The man took up the duffel, and tossing it to one of the men who took it inside the warehouse, he said, "Everything you ask will be done. If there are any more questions I might have, or any updates, I'll let you know."
"Good." Katherine nodded, making a u turn before leaving, "One more thing... Do not fail me."
The man smirked, smacking his lips as he stubbed on the cigarette he was smoking.
"I never fail."
.......
Thanks for reading. 💕