AMELIA Just as I was again reflecting on the fact that Damian had not returned home last night, the door opened, and a moment later, the subject of my thoughts came into the house. In spite of myself, my eyes roved around him, searching for lipstick stains or other telltale signs that he had been with another woman last night. I found none, but that did not mean he hadn't been tumbling in bed with some floozy. The thought made me really angry. "Good morning," I said coldly and returned to sipping my steaming cup of coffee. My eyes roved through the list of orders for the bakery, but I could suddenly not understand what was written there. "Good morning," Damian called back cheerfully. To my surprise, instead of going straight to his room like I expected him to, he came to sit on the sofa. "You're probably wondering where I went to," he said after a moment's silence. "I just realized you didn't spend the night at home," I said as casually as I could. I was ca
AMELIA I was peering at the screen of my computer, surfing the net and writing down prices of some items I wished to purchase when Rose, the manager of my bakery, called me. "Hello?" I picked up the phone eagerly. "Ma'am," she gasped and swallowed audibly. I sat upright immediately. Just that one word and I knew that something was very, very wrong. Unconsciously, I gripped the phone tightly. "Rose, what's wrong?" She made a sound halfway between a gasp and a sigh. She seemed to be struggling to speak. "I'm sorry... It's just that I'm still so shaken... though we've got it under control, but for a while, I thought- I thought-" She swallowed again. "Take a deep breath and tell me what happened," I said more calmly than I felt. Rose audibly exhaled. "There's been a fire at the bakery." "WHAT?" My hands trembled, and I grabbed the phone tighter. "It's under control now," she hastened to add. “We were able to put out the fire.” My brain whirled in a hundred d
AMELIA It’s been two days since Lora attempted to destroy my bakery. I’ve been on edge, bothered and terrified of everything. Damian had assured me nothing would happen, but I didn’t believe him. If she could do it once, she could definitely do it again. I had tried to convince him to get her arrested or sued in court, but he claimed we didn’t have substantial evidence to do that. Evidence my foot! From the descriptions of my staff and past experiences, we had all the evidence we needed against her. But Damian was bent on letting her go till we had something substantial to hold against her. Damn him and his ex. I sighed and continued typing on my MacBook when a knock came on my door. “Come in,” I called out, not lifting my head from my screen. The door opened and closed sharply. “Nice place you’ve got.” I knew that voice. I lifted my head to meet Anton’s gaze. What was he doing at the bakery? “Anton? What are you doing here?” I shook my head. “Please, forgiv
AMELIA The party was finally over. The guests were gone. The house had been tidied up, thanks to the servers hired for the event, but I still could not get the sight of Damian's annoyed expression out of my head when he registered that he had walked into a surprise birthday party. Anton was right. Damian actually did hate surprise parties, but after a while, he accepted the party with good grace. However, I had noticed that whenever no one had been close enough to engage him in conversation, he tended to stay by himself at the back of the room, sipping a drink and looking like he wished he were somewhere else. Anton had not allowed him to brood. I put away the unused bottles of wine in the fridge and searched for Damian. I found him nibbling on a piece of his birthday cake and scowling as though remembering something unpleasant. He didn’t look particularly excited, but he didn’t look like he would bite either. "Hey, birthday boy," I said, lowering myself onto the sofa bes
AMELIA "And you know Lucy, of course," Betty said. "What's wrong, dear?" Betty asked,, finally noticing my mood. "Nothing," I said quickly. "I er- didn't know Lucy would be coming." "I'm a fashion designer, you know, a fact that I mentioned when we had dinner at the mayor's. Betty wants me here for my expert advice." I nodded. Lucy extended her hand in greeting. It had barely touched mine before she pulled it away like she had touched something infectious. The next moment, a handkerchief had materialized in her hand. She began scrubbing at the fingers that had touched me. I heartily wished now that I hadn't come. "We were just starting," said Betty and I was glad of an excuse to turn away from Lucy. I got the distinct impression that Betty's three other friends didn't like me very much. They seemed to be sizing me up. "This is my favourite place to shop. They literally have everything here. Well, not everything but you get my drift. Have you been here before, dear?" "No,
DAMIAN I drummed my fingers impatiently on the desk in my study as I thought of what to do. Getting Amelia released from jail was simple enough. Getting her released it in such a way that no one got wind of the fact that she had gotten arrested in the first place, was the challenge. The issue would have to be handled really carefully. A wave of anger and irritation coursed through me. What had she gone and gotten herself arrested for? "Focus, Damian. Focus," I muttered to myself. I grabbed my phone and quickly scrolled through it for a while before I found the number I was looking for. I dialed it. The man was a lawyer I had some dealings with a while ago. He had useful connections with the bigwigs and authority figures in this city and beyond. He was the soul of discretion, and discretion was what I needed at this moment. "Mr Donovan," he said through the phone. "It's been quite a while." "Yes. Yes. I need your help with something. My wife, Amelia, has got herself into a
DAMIAN "Just give me a moment to see all this," I told the project engineer tersely. The afternoon sun beat down mercilessly on me as I moved around the site, checking out the equipment. Another engineer at my side hurried to keep up as he pointed out the various equipments that had been damaged. For the past week, I had been getting reports of damaged or malfunctioning equipment at the site of the bullet train railway. This time, the damage had been very extensive. When I checked and discovered that sugar had been poured into the gas tanks of some of the heavy duty machinery, my suspicions were proven. What had been happening at the site was sabotage. After about forty-five minutes of inspection, I gave the project engineer a defeated stare. "We will have to put the entire project on hold for now," I said. "Call off the workers." He nodded, paused to wipe a stream of sweat running down his face. "But sir, the mayor..." he said. Ah. The mayor. He had been impressed
AMELIA "Oh shit! Oh shit! Shit!" I exclaimed over again as soon as I realized what I had done. My mind was in a whirl as I tried to remember what the after effects of recieving a canister of pepper spray full in the eyes were. How I wished I had used the taser instead. Lucien's renewed howls of agony brought me to my senses. I hooked my hands under his armpits and with all my strength, hoisted him up. He stood on unsteady legs, took a step forward and promptly rammed his head against the wall. "Son of a bitch!" he screamed and promptly clapped a hand to his forehead while the other rubbed frantically at his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Lucien," I said miserably. "I had no idea... I didn't know you were the one..." I stopped apologizing because Lucien's couldn't hear me over his shouts anyway. I grabbed his arm to lead him inside. His groping hit the doorjamb and he swore again. "Stop trying to find your way in and let me lead you," I shouted. He seemed to have heard me becaus