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
DAMIAN "Wait. You're the police?" I asked. "Yes sir," said the man on the other end of the phone. "I'm officer Harris..." The construction site! Had that scumbag, Noah, dared make another attempt to sabotage me after the warning I had given him? If he had, I would deal with him in a worse way than I had initially planned. Then Harry said Amelia's name and Noah was driven right out of my mind. "Say that again. Did you just say Amelia?" "Yes. You're her husband, Mr Donovan, right?" "Yes." "Right. She was attacked at the bakery. She called the police..." I didn't wait to hear the rest. I just snatched up my car keys lying on the table and left the house. It was when I was in my car, driving quickly to the bakery that I remembered all the questions I should have asked the police officer. Who had attacked Amelia? Why had she been attacked? And most importantly, was she safe? This last question preyed on my mind so much that I snatched up my phone from the passenger's se
NOAH "Uncle Noah! Uncle Noah!" Louise's shrill urgent voice made me take my eyes off the road for a second. She had been really quiet during the ride because she had been so engrossed in looking at places and people we passed. Now she was bouncing excitedly up and down in the car seat as she pointed at something. "Yes, sweetheart?" I said. "That way! Let's go that way," she cried. I looked closely now and realized that she was pointing to the right side of the road, and I was just about to turn left. "But honey, the candy store I want to take you to isn't in that direction. If we go my way, we'll be there in to time." Louise shook her head, her blonde pigtails swinging from side to side. "No, Uncle Noah. I don't want to go there. There's a nice store this way. It's called Candyland." Candyland. I had heard of the store a couple of times. "I went there with mummy once and all my friends at school love it. They've got-" She quickly dropped the popsicle she had been ch