Damien fixed his tie once again, checking to see if his hair was still slicked back.
Satisfied with his reflection in the mirror, he grabbed the files he would need for the meeting today, tucking them under his arm as he waited for Katherine to finish up.
Like always, her hair stylist and makeup artist took hours following her instructions until they'd dolled her up. This was why he had instructed that they come hours before.
Of course, Katherine hated being made to wake up earlier than she intended when taking a nap, but she had no choice if she truly wanted to escort him to the meeting.
It was a business lunch date with Mr Ramon, the Italian man they had met that day at the event, and Katherine insisted she would come along.
After the last time they had argued, Damien had expected her to be quite cold and distant to him, so he couldn't hide his surprise when she had been all smiles and flirty asking if she could come along.
Of course he gave in, as he couldn't refuse for no just reason.
After about ten minutes, she emerged from the inner room.
"How do I look?" She asked, smiling.
Damien gently held onto her waist, leading her to the door as he kissed her lightly on the cheek, "You look beautiful, like always. We have to go now, we can't be late."
When Katherine nodded without sulking about the fact that he had not given her more compliments, he exhaled quietly in relief. Great! He didn't want anything changing his mood before his day even started.
They got into the back seat of the car, and he ordered the driver to take them to their destination. They would have lunch in the VIP sections of one of Mr Ramon's five-star hotels.
Damien had only been there once, and the place as he remembered was an excellent taste. He humored Katherine by telling her about it when she asked, although he knew she was only trying to make small talk.
Soon they got to their destination, and walking in Damien saw that there were only a handful of people in the restaurant.
Damien sighted Mr Ramon from a distance, as the old man sat talking to his wife at one of the tables, and quickly with arms around Katherine's waist they both made their way to their table.
"Mr Ramon." Damien greeted with a smile, bowing a little to clutch the older man's hand in his.
"Mr Daniels, how good to see you." Mr Ramon smiled, "And the beautiful lady." He added when his eyes moved to Katherine.
"Mrs Ramon..." Damien greeted his wife, the grey-haired woman, and smiling pleasantly, she stretched our her hand which Damien planted a light kiss on.
After pleasantries had been exchanged, both couples sat across the table from each other, and as they carried on with their discussion the waiters served champagne, and then continued with the three course meal.
Damien began to run Mr Ramon through his ideas from the new business deal while Mrs Ramon and Katherine spoke.
All through the convo, Mr Ramon nodded in agreement to everything he said, always finishing with, "That's a nice idea, Damien. Tell me more about it." It was pleasing to say the least.
"Erm lest I forget." Mr Ramon coughed after a while, "Congratulations, I heard about your new partnership with Antonio Enterprises. You should be proud of yourself. That's more than huge." The old man smiled and Damien thanked him profusely, raising his glass to his lips.
As for Katherine she was beaming at him with pride, not that he paid her any heed.
Damien continued his discussion with Mr Ramon as the second course meal arrived.
The waiter in charge served them all, and as he tipped the wine bottle to refill Katherine's glass, his hand wobbled a little, making the drink almost spill on Katherine.
Damien was too busy to notice but the cutting glare Katherine gave the waiter who quickly apologized, was not lost on Mrs Ramon and suddenly, as if she had just remembered something, the old lady said, "This reminds me of the last time we met..." She began, her comment directed at Katherine, "What ever happened to that waitress? The one who spilled drinks on you."
Damien instantly froze, surprise coating his features as he stared at Mrs Ramon without a word, and just immediately she faced him questioningly.
He wanted to brush it off quickly, and continue his chat with Mr Ramon, but he couldn't possibly ignore the man's wife in front of him. He wondered why she was thinking about it, or even asking him about that.
The last thing he needed right now was to remember Madison, and this woman was sorely reminding him of that.
He cleared his throat, "I think I remember who you mean. What about her?" He asked, hoping he sounded believable enough, as he cleared his throat suddenly thinking Madison. What about her though?
"You tell me." Mrs Ramon continued, "When I was in Italy a few weeks ago, there were so many tabloids about you and her. I saw one which said she was working at your club? Rumor says you kicked her out or you fought. Something like that, is it true?"
Damien felt his chest begin to tighten. How did she know about all of this? And why did she seem to even care so much?
He could already see Mr Ramon glancing at him as if he was waiting for him to answer, and Damien struggled for something to say, but his head was blank.
"Oh, Mr Damien, You really have nothing to say?" Mrs Ramon chimed in again breaking the uncomfortable silence as she continued, "I doubt you would make a good business partner if you really treat women like this though." She finished, laughing a little as she wiped the corner of her lips with a napkin.
Damien clenched his fists under the table, as his brain was still racking up what to say. He knew that Mrs Ramon had meant what she said as a joke, but what if that statement somehow got to her husband? It would be the end of him, and Damien could not afford to lose this business deal over this.
He just couldn't. But again what could he do? He felt Katherine place a hand on his thigh, giving it a light squeeze as she tried to comfort him, but now her touch only irritated him.
Damien saw that Mr Ramon was not saying anything, only watching the whole scenario and he began to wonder if his reputation was not already ruined in this old man's eyes.
"Mrs Ramon, I'm sorry about the misunderstanding... if it seemed like I'm the kind of person to mistreat women. I assure you there is nothing of that sort." He said, but she in turn kept him mute for a while.
"I assure you I don't treat women that way." Damien tried again.
"Did the poor waitress manage to pay for the dress like you ordered? If I could recall clearly you said something about 2000 dollars, while your girlfriend babbled and cried."
Damien could hear the disdain in the elderly lady's voice and he could feel the business deal, slipping from his hands so quickly, "I-I apologize for that—"
"Enough." Mr Ramon finally spoke up, waving his hand in the air to halt the conversation. He cast a brief sideway glance at his wife, placing his hand on hers for a moment and then he turned to Damien, "I apologize for my wife's questions. She tends to remember past things, and can be quite emotional and a handful about it sometimes. Please, excuse her."
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.
.......
Thanks for reading. 💕