KATHERINE
Katherine waited impatiently until the coast was clear before she walked out of her car.
The men she hired had sent a message to her, telling her they had some information regarding the investigation on Madison, and Katherine had only been too happy to hear it.
As soon as she sorted out all she needed to do that morning, she hurried down to the address they had given her.
Getting there she turned her nose up at the surroundings, disgust coursing through her and she was even angry.
It was another abandoned building with a rundown garage built underground, and as she made her way through she wrinkled her nose.
Of course, what else had she expected. She just hoped for their sakes that they came with meaningful information, else they were going to regret it for making her pass through these slums.
The men were already awaiting her arrival when she stepped in, and they instantly stood from their seats, nodding at her when they saw her, but Katherine had no time for pleasantries and so she waved their greetings off.
"Talk to me." She ordered, cutting straight to the chase. She saw them exchange looks and then the one who she recognized as the boss, stepped forward.
"We have information on the lady...Madison Connor?"
Katherine nodded impatiently, "Yes? What have you got for me?"
"We found out the city where she is, and where she stays too. It's a relatively small town in London. I had her followed for a few days, and it turns out she recently landed herself a job."
Katherine looked up, "A job? What kind of job?" She asked, furious that Madison had gotten a job already, seeming to move on with her life. How did that even happen?
Katherine had expected her to be living in abject poverty still, since she had abandoned all that she had to come to New York, but then... She didn't like this news one bit.
"It's at a bakery in the town. It's a huge bakery, apparently. So I guess it's a pretty decent job, with a good pay for anyone who works there." He finished cutting through Katherine's thought, and she felt her face redden.
No! She couldn't possibly allow this. She didn't know why but she didn't like the idea of Madison having a very comfortable job.
Having a job meant that she would be able to cater for her needs, and maybe even start to live better, and if it was at a huge, well-known bakery then she would have a lot of opportunities like promotions and all. Also it would give her ample opportunity to take care of herself, and have more resources to send letters to Damien or even try to see him.
Distance would not be a barrier, when she had money to pay for train tickets or even flights and all that.
No! Katherine vowed not to let that happen. Madison was nothing but a low-life and she would keep it that way. What she deserved was to beg, and even if she got jobs then she had to work really menial ones all her life, and live permanently in poverty.
Katherine for no reason wanted to see her suffer... Well she had established the fact that she loathed the bitch right from the first day she had seen her, but now the hate was only increasing. Now, Katherine just wanted to watch her struggle and work until she couldn't take it anymore, and then she would break, give up on contacting Damien and just continue to live her poor miserable life. Only then would Katherine be able to rest.
She looked back up at the men.
Pointing at one of them, she motioned him forward, "Get the contact info of the bakery manager. Business card, whatever. I would like to have a word with him." She needed to get ahold of the manager. She could not rest until she was rest assured Madison was without a job, at least for now and also suffering.
The man gave a slight smirk, digging his hand into the pocket of his jeans and slipping out a business card which he handed to Katherine, he said, "I knew you would ask for this so I prepared it beforehand."
Katherine cocked an eyebrow in surprise, a squeaky evil laugh escaping her lips as he stretched out his hand to give her the card, "Wow, wow wow. Very efficient. I like it!"
"Thank you." Katherine said again, still laughing as she took the card from him.
The men exchanged looks, staring at Katherine in shock. She was hardly ever polite to them and they were pretty sure they'd never heard her say thank you, so now it felt a tad bit strange not that she cared.
Katherine, oblivious to the shocked look on their faces quickly slipped the card into her jacket smiling to herself. As she faced them to commend them on their work, her phone began to vibrate. Her initial reaction was a feeling of irritation, but then she saw who the caller was, and a quick feeling of interest took over.
She picked up instantly, "Yes?"
It was the man from the post office, and he briefly informed her that another letter had arrived from London which was directed to Damien.
Another anger resurfaced, as Katherine patted herself knowing she had been right to think that the bitch would try to send another letter.
Obviously the bitch hadn't given up. She still had the effrontery to keep sending the letters.
Well unluckily for her, Katherine would continue to get her hands on it first and soon she would have no other choice but to stop writing.
"Okay then, thank you for informing me. Well you know what to do right?" She asked and the man replied positively.
"Good then, that would be all." She spoke into the receiver, cursing under her breath as she ended the call. She quickly slipped her phone back into her pocket, readjusting the turban on her head, and turned to face the men with her.
"Okay boys. Good work today. But remember, I need more information, and reach out if anything else comes up, you know the drill."
"Yes Ma'am."
She dipped her hands in her bag and bringing out a small envelope of money she gave it to the boss, and after he thanked her profusely, she twirled on her feet, putting her shades back on and took short steps out of the garage.
She was done here.
.......
"Come on in." Damien said as soon as he heard the knock on the office door.
Quickly he put away all the files he was currently working on, as he had more important things to do for now.
He had been waiting for Mr Rudiger since this morning when he had called to inform him that he had gotten the information in a flash drive, and inviting him over he was finally here.
Damien felt a rush of anxiety and excitement that he could not quite explain, but he calmed himself down taking steady breaths.
"Good day, sir." Mr Rudiger greeted walking in and taking the seat Damien had offered him.
With no time to waste and just like Damien liked, he began to speak, "I finally have another information about Madison Connor too, that's why I quickly accepted your invitation to come over."
Damien felt his muscles stiffen but nevertheless he nodded, asking the investigator to continue. After all, he had asked him to look into it.
"She currently lives in a small town in London, some miles away from where she used to live with her parents when she was younger. It's a one-bedroom apartment, nothing too fancy. It's dilapidated too, actually in need of repairs."
Damien nodded thoughtfully. That meant she was still having a hard time surviving. Damien felt a stubborn stab of guilt in his chest but he chose not to dwell on it, "Anything else?"
Mr Rudiger nodded, extracting some colored print outs from the files and a flash drive, handing it over to Damien, "You wanted to know where she is working at. She recently got a job at a big bakery in town, and from my findings, the pay is decent enough. Apart from that, there aren't any other drastic changes or events you should know about."
Damien stared at the photos of the bakery in his hand.
It didn't look familiar but the name did sound familiar so Damien figured it must be well-known. So she had a job now.
That was... good. He sucked in a breath when he came across a picture of Madison standing at the entrance of the bakery, with someone.
It wasn't a rather clear picture so he figured she must have gotten into the image by mistake, and she even looked unawares too. Not wanting to act strange in front of his private investigator, he faced the pictures down on his desk, and turned back to Mr Rudiger waiting for him to say more.
There was still one question which stood at the back of his mind had not been answered yet, and as of the investigator had read his mind, he said once more, "And as for her marital status, Madison Connor remains unmarried, neither is she seeing anyone at the moment."
Damien did not understand why he felt so much lighter and relieved at Mr Rudiger's words, and it was for some reason that he just couldn't explain.
He was happy that Madison was not dating anyone at the moment. He knew it shouldn't be a big deal nor matter to him, but he couldn't understand why that piece of information made him glad.
Nevertheless he waved it out of his mind, and thanking Mr Rudiger, he put the files and the flash drive he had been given on his desk.
He glanced briefly at the flash drive in relief, happy that the information was there already. He had been so relieved when Mr Rudiger told him he had recovered the files earlier this morning and as he watched the investigator pack up his files he smiled and said genuinely, "Thank you, you've done a lot."
"It's no problem, sir." The investigator insisted, giving a short nod as he made to leave.
Damien stopped him, slipping a hand into his wallet and taking out some bills.
"Here, take this. You deserve it for all you've done. Get yourself a nice lunch, yeah?"
Smiling ruefully, Mr Rudiger thanked him and then he was gone.
As soon as he closed the door behind him, Damien quickly inserted the flash drive into his computer, not wanting to waste any more time or take any chances. Finally the files began to load.
First, he came across a folder which contained pictures of Madison. He could tell that the pictures were from a few years ago, and Damien's breath caught in his throat as he stared at each of them.
She looked... breathtaking, just like she always had. His heart squeezed in pain as memories of the past came flooding back.
Madison.
They had been so good together. Everything had been going so well. Perfectly, to be honest. Until she had decided to change that...
Flashback... Some years back...
"W-what?" Damien whimpered, his voice shaky as he stared at Madison who stood at the other end of the room, her arms folded. He had never seen her look like that before.
She seemed... cold. Her face was expressionless, as she stared right back at Damien, making no move to take back what she had just said, "You heard me. That's all I came here to talk to you."
Her voice was strong, steady. There wasn't a trace of uncertainty in them, and it was in that moment that Damien felt his world crashing down on him.
"Maddie...babe, please. You can't possibly mean that... What the hell!" He cursed, but she still didn't say a word.
All she did was stare back at him with those emotionless eyes, and Damien felt the back of his eyes begin to burn.
He moved closer to her. "Maddie, please. I love you, you know that. I don't understand where all of this is coming from—"
"Just stop it, Damien!" She cut him off, "We can't be together anymore, okay? I don't want to be with you anymore. Is it so difficult to understand? Worse still the rumors you've been hearing is true and I just came here to confirm them. We are done Damien, done!"
Damien felt his heart breaking as Madison shook her head, "That is all I have to say." She finished, and without as much as a second glance at Damien, she stormed out of the room, leaving Damien staring after her, while he struggled to keep himself from breaking down in tears.
His whole world, just fell apart right before his eyes.
Flashback ends...
Damien shut his eyes tightly at the memory, pain shooting up his body.
He didn't think he would ever forgive her for what she had done to him. Even after all these years it still hurt him so much. She had ripped his heart out, leaving him broken.
He had never hurt so much in his entire life, and till now the pain was still there.
It still hurt so much.
Shaking his head to get rid of the thoughts, Damien quickly regained his composure, going through the rest of what was on the flash drive.
The flash drive... and that was when reality struck heavily.
As he downloaded the rest of the documents and tapped on them, he nearly fell off his chair in shock. He zoomed in on the pictures he was staring at.
His heart began to race in his chest as he continued to scroll through. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. When he came across some audio recordings, he pressed play and began to listen to them.
No, no, no.
This couldn't be. It couldn't be...
His palms were clammy with sweat as his fingers gripped the material of his trousers, and the pasts slammed into his head in full force.
The more he played through all the audio messages, the pictures he stared at, and some other information that was to real to be true, the deeper he fell into disbelief.
Could this be possible... No! But what the fucking hell was going on?
.......
Thanks for reading. 💕