Chapter 28
-DAMIAN-
“boss?” Danny’s voice cut through my train of thought.
I slid my eyes from the window, locking with Danny’s curious one in the rearview mirror.
“We’re here,” he murmured, a crease wrinkling the space between his eyebrows.
We slid out of the car and crossed the tarmac to thepany jet.
“Something on your mind?” Danny asked as he filled two rock sses with whiskey.
Danny and I flew to California. udia, the head of Scarlett Design, imed that one of her staff working
on the ground. floor developed skin irritation when they started working at the Belmont Hotel. The
woman fucking freaked out and called Silverio, pointing fingers at me and saying that it was caused by
exposure to asbestos.
Silverio asked me to personally handle this. We had to take samples and send them to theb for
analysis. It would take three weeks for the results toe out.
Silverio clearly took udia’s side on this one. He didn’t even consider that ck Construction had been
in this industry for too long to be this careless. Maybe udia’s pussy was made of gold. Either that, or
Silverio was just in stupid. 1 vouched
for thetter.
Apart from this freaking asbestosint?” I groaned, sipping my drink.
Danny hummed, removing his necktie, tossing his suit jacket on the long gray seat,
“You bothered about that? We both know how that result will turn out.” He smirked, his voice lighting. “Is
there still trouble in paradise?”
Danny was one of the people who knew me in and out of the office, and there’s one rule I abide by. Work
hard, y hard. Even when I was still with Sonja, my personal life had never hindered with my job.
Sonja knew me as the guitar yer who lived in a stinky apartment, not the security manager for ck
Holdings. With Danny on my side, I was able to keep my identity a secret for a long time from the girls I
yed with. Thenes Millicent who knew me as Damian, the son of Erik ck, step brother to her
best friend and now she’s my fake girlfriend.
Navigating this territory had been a struggle for me, and Danny could see right through me. Whether
that’s a good have no idea really.
It had been days since Ist saw Millicent. From being unable to keep our hands off each other, she’d
gone radio siler again. It’s fucking with my head..
Is this really how rtionships worked?
Since Sonja and I were in an illicit affair, we kept our rtionship a secret. We went out, partied and
enjoyed each other’spany without the hassle of family drama and public eyes watching us. Most of
the time, I’d go to her apartment, and we’d stay locked up for a day or two.
Everything was different with Millicent. I want to see her, hear her voice and take her ces and see her
smile. I wanted to make her happy and erase every fucked up thing her ex did to her. How could I do that
if she wasn’t answering my calls and messages?
At first, I thought she was busy with moving back to Roslin City. Then when I called their new office, and
she refused to speak to me, I knew something was definitely up with her. She’d totally shut me out.
“Just thinking about how I’d propose.” I cannot exactly let Danny in on my deal with Millicent, but it was
on the tip of my tongue. Danny was trustworthy, but it’s Millicent’s trust that I’m keeping.
|||
M.
“Ah…” he shook his head. “Now that exins why you’re out of your head all day.” Danny chuckled. It
was low and teasing. He’s the only one who couldugh at me and still keep his job.
I groaned, pinning him with a death re.
He raised his hand in surrender, still gazing at me as though my misery was an entertainment for him.
Leaning forward, Danny resting his chin on his joined hands, pondering on his next words. “What does
Millicent like? Just focus on that. From what I saw, she wasn’t the kind of girl who’s hard to please.”
“She’s not.” Lagreed. Besides, we are faking this engagement. She will act in ordance with our n
however I’d pop the
question.
Changing the topic, I jumped into a much more pressing issue. “Got any news from Mon about the
tes?”
Our cameras caught a sedan leaving the premises of the Belmont Hotel when the rm went off three
weeks ago. The whispering devil in my ears tells me the attack wasn’t random and someone wanted to
sabotage me. I could feel it in my gut. But “why is the question? That rming off didn’t do much
damage to our operation.
1 withheld this information from the fire chief, though.
“It’s a stolen te.” Danny pulled out his phone. Secondster, mine vibrated in my pocket.
I scanned the documents Danny sent in my email, frowning. “Nevada tes?”
Danny nodded a yes.
“Who would go to these lengths just to piss me off?”
Honestly, I wasn’t bothered by that incident at all, but this information doesn’t sit well with me.
I couldn’t take Millicent’s silence anymore. So I decided to pop into their new office in Roslin City
unannounced with takeouts from the Italian restaurant down the street as a prop.
Boxes littered their office, and newspapers covered the floor, the heavy scent of paint permeating the air.
Empty shelves lined the walls, and the three of them, Millicent, Candice, and Andrea, were in their shorts
and tank tops, all sweaty with their hair tied in a messy bun above their heads.
“You brought lunch!” Candice was the first to see me, dropping her brush on the paint bucket before her.
Millicent locked eyes with me. She was standing on adder. One hand holding for safety, the other
holding a paint roll
face was bare of makeup, beads of sweat glistening on her forehead, a map of sweat marked her pink
tank top. I swallowed the lump in my throat, taking her long legs in those tiny shorts as she descended
thedder. I remember how good those legs felt wrapped around me. She touched down on her
sneakers, bit her lip before dropping the roller on the bucket before her, wiping her forehead with a towel
hanging around her neck. “Hey.”
I stepped inside and ced the takeouts on the table Andrea cleared out.
“Hi, baby” I looped a hand around Millicent’s waist and kissed her forehead.
She shivered, faltering on her foot as she pushed away from me. Her eyes were weary and distant. The
fire that had been there when we were in her apartment was nowhere to be seen. “You didn’t have to do
this.”
“This is really sweet,” Andrea piped in and opened the food containers one by one. Her eyes sparkled
like a kid on Christmas Eve, humming as she smelled cach dish.
“You’re a lifesaver, D… I’m freaking starving,” Candice said, dragging two chairs from the corner of the
room. The protective stic cover was still on. She didn’t remove it, rolled one to Andrea, and plonked
on one, tipping her head at me with a quirked eyebrow. “Get your fiancee a chair, knight in shining
armor.”
III
Spotting two more chairs on the side of the room, Idragged thein and passed one to Millicent, Candice
and Andrea were already eating like they had been starved for days.
Millicent had been silent the entire time we were having lunch, answering questions and butting in once
in a while. I don’t think her friends noticed her smile never reached her eyes, but did.
“Are we okay?” I asked Millicent as I walked her to her door. I stayed that afternoon to help them work in
their office. Andrea was temporarily staying at Millicent’s apartment while Millicent stayed at her parent’s
ce. She had just put up her apartment for sale. She wanted to get rid of it, which was clearly
understandable.
“Yeah. She rummaged through her bag for her keys. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
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She’d grown cold towards me, and I didn’t like it. I volunteered to drive her home, but she’d been quiet
the entire drive. It’s like threading on murky waters with her. “About Saturday-
Millicent made a sharp tum. Her eyes were glossy when she met mine. “Can we can we not talk about it,
Damian? It’s not even part of our deal, and we crossed so many lines that night.”
Her sharp tone took me by surprise. I blinked at her. “You invited me through your door, Millicent. Why
does it sound as if I forced you to do anything?”
I even asked her if that was what she wanted.
She pinched her eyes shut, took a few deep breaths before looking at me again. “It was a mistake, and I
regret it. Let’s just stick to our old agreement, okay?”
She mmed the door in my face, not even letting me say a fucking word.