Bella excused herself from the dining table and went to meet Damion where he stood with his head bowed. “Did something happen?” she rested her hand on his shoulder in a silent show of support.Damion shook his head and touched her hand lightly, “Let’s go eat. I’ll explain later.”Bella looked at him worriedly as he turned and left but she followed, filing everything in her head for later. They all sat down at the table while the chefs brought in the food.“This looks so delicious, Ericson.” Patricia, Bianca’s mother, appraised to which Ericson responded with, “It’s all the chefs. Most times, I have no idea what I want to eat. I learned a long time ago to just leave everything in their hands.”Everyone chuckled at that except Damion and Bianca, each lost in their own thoughts. Ericson sat down on one end of the table, Bella on his right and Damion on his left, while Roberts sat on the other end, his wife on his left and Bianca on his right; that way, Damion and Bianca sat side by side
“What in God’s name was that drama you performed at the Lance mansion all about?” Bianca’s father burst out in rage immediately as they entered the family room.Bianca knew it would come to this, and there was no escaping what was to come. Her father had been silent throughout the car ride and her mother had played some country music to help with the tension in the car.The tension was so alive, brimming with electricity that Bianca had felt it on her skin, even though none of them had said a word.This was one of the days she was thankful that her father had insisted on driving them himself. If a driver had taken them to the Lance mansion, there would have been no way she would escape her father’s wrath in the car.It was when he filed into the family room upon getting to the house that she knew it was not going to be easy at all. Her father was going to lash out on her with everything he’s got, but she was determined to stand her ground. She would not be a pawn any longer.“I just s
Damion left the house with a heavy heart. Life was so fragile and small that the first time he made a mistake, karma decided to payback immediately. There was no opportunity to right his wrongs before the retribution for them came. He had already gotten on his bike before he realized that he had no idea where he was going. He didn’t know where the Gales lived.‘Bianca Gale. The name suited her,’ he thought as he took his phone out of his pocket to message Bella and ask for the address.He could have just gone in to ask but he couldn’t bear seeing the look of disappointment on his grandfather’s face anymore. His words from earlier had crushed his heart but he knew he deserved the harsh words and more.There was no excuse for what he had done to his betrothed, even though he didn’t know she was the one at the time. And just like his grandfather had stated earlier, if he had accepted their help, all these would not have happened in the first place.A notification came in his phone and h
“Can you drive?” Bianca asked, tossing Damion the key to her car as she climbed into the passenger side without waiting for his response.Damion sighed as he watched her get comfortable in the car, checking herself out on her phone camera. He was now in a dilemma because he had wanted to tell her he didn’t drive but she had already made her choice so he got into the driver’s seat and inserted the key.“You know, for a minute there, I thought you were going to say you didn’t drive,” she taunted and Damion decided it would have been a bad idea to tell her he didn’t drive so he steeled his mind and turned the key in the ignition. In truth, Damion had only learnt how to drive when he was still back at the orphanage.Old Mr. Ben, one of the neighbors then, had taught him how to drive his old truck and he had practiced after school everyday for three months. But ever since he left the orphanage, he had not driven any other car.And even though he wanted to say no to Bianca, he started the
Damion slowly stepped on the gas this time around as Bianca guided him into putting the gear in reverse. As he guided the car out of the compound, Bianca had taught him how to work with the gear in her car, and soon they were cruising downtown.As he drove, Bianca connected her bluetooth to the car’s speaker and started to sing along to the music. Damion glanced at her once in a while to see her head thrown back, her hand fisted in front of her mouth to resemble a microphone and she was belting the lyrics, singing along.He smiled as he concentrated fully on the road. This was the first time he was seeing Bianca in her element, happy and carefree. And the realization brought him happiness too.He stopped the car in his old apartment. “Where are we?” Bianca asked, opening her eyes once the car stopped.“Welcome to my compound. I need to go in and change from this suit quickly. You didn’t think I was going to go get ice cream in a five thousand dollar Italian suit, did you?” he asked, r
“I have a question for you. Do you still want to cancel our engagement?” Damion asked after a while. Bianca thought about it for a while and sighed heavily. It wasn’t like she wanted to cancel the engagement earlier, it was just the anger that made her do it. She liked Damion more than she would admit to him but she didn’t want him bound to her just because of a silly betrothal made by their guardians without their consent.Marrying a man out of obligation rather than love was something she had never wanted for herself and she wouldn’t start wanting it now.“Honestly, yes.” Damion tried to hide his disappointment but Bianca noticed it anyway.She held out her hand and rested it on his thighs, causing his attention to shift to her face. “I really like you Damion and I could see myself marrying you, but I don’t want you to feel obligated to marry me. I have always wanted to fall madly in love with the man I’m going to marry and I want the same for you too,” she told him in a soft voi
Damion walked into the office he saw Bianca disappear and he found her on a queue wanting to pay for the rides. He walked up to her and pulled her away.“What are you doing? You just made all my hard work amount to nothing, now I’ll have to queue at the end of the line all over again.” she whined as she crossed her arms over her chest and when she was done talking, her lips pursed into a pout.“Come on. I saw an arena where we could watch the racers on the other end, and if you don’t mind I'd really love to watch a race or two before getting the tickets,” Damion remarked, pulling her as he stalked to the other end of the establishment.She snatched her hand away from his, and squinted her eyes at him.“You’re not using this as a tactic to avoid competing with me, are you?” Damion laughed as if she just said the most ridiculous thing. “Come on, why would I do that?”“Well, because you know I would beat you,” she replied, so confident in her skills. “Babe, even if I was to compete with
“Please add this gentleman’s drink to my bill,” he told the bartender. When he was done paying, he slid the card back into his pocket and grabbed the drinks in each hand. He then extended his elbow so Bianca could hook her hand which she did with her regal confidence. Damion then turned back to the man and looked at him in disdain, “Never ever talk to my woman again. That will serve both as a warning and a threat.”The man gulped audibly in fear and Damion walked away in satisfaction. That was his first attempt at intimidating anybody and it seemed like it had worked. He looked at Bianca as she latched onto his arm, standing tall and proud by his side, the gaze she gave him was one of complete adoration; Damion knew he had done the right thing. They found a vacant window near the stage where they were racing and sat there. The sun had already gone down but the race course was illuminated by a lot of stadium lights that it even looked brighter than day. Damion directed his focus bac