“I have finished with my presentation, Sir.”
A tall, lean man extends a hand holding a USB drive to another man in a swivel chair tucked behind a lavish desk. The man from the desk takes the device from his fingers and then plugs it into his own laptop. He then lifts his gaze over to the timid man before him and nods.
“Delivered on time as always, Damien. I’m impressed.” His boss inspects the presentation file in his screen and scrolls. “I’m even surprised that with your performance, you have not asked me for a promotion yet.”
The man before him, who was described as timid, fixed his glasses and answered in a meek tone, “I believe you are the one that decides that, Sir.”
“Very well, your work here is done. You may clock out.”
Damien bowed at his boss and then leaves the office and then took off his spectacles to rub his tired eyes. He watched the office clock hanging from the wall and saw that he had gone past the normal overtime. All of a sudden, his drowsiness was taken away when one of his coworkers calls him from afar.
“Damien! Come here! We got some crazy news for you!”
Damien brushed his dark hair with his fingers and rubbed his fatigued nape before approaching his friend. “What is it?”
“Look!” he pointed at his smartphone which aired the national midnight news. Damien wore his eyeglasses again and inspected what the news was.
“What’s that?”
“That’s the CEO! And she’s marrying the prettiest girl! She’s from another department, right?”
Damien gazed at the smiling woman, who sat on a prestigious banquet with the so-called CEO of their company. By the time he saw how she rested her head against the man’s shoulder, Damien’s own world crashed before his eyes.
The male turned pale and his fists tightened. His coworker glanced at him with a concerned face and asked again. “Are you alright?”
“Why are they together?” Damien asked, trying to keep himself calm.
“They’re getting married, I told you!”
Married?
Damien scoffed at the word.
How can she get married with another man when that beautiful girl is in a relationship with him?
That’s right.
Clarissa Norwood was Damien’s beloved girlfriend.
Or at least, that how he viewed their relationship was.
“Look at those food! And that venue too! The reporters are all around and everyone looks so wealthy! I can’t imagine a simple worker from Human Resource Department would marry the CEO right away! Don’t you think that’s crazy? The CEO is proposing to her! I don’t even know why he had to! Surely this girl wouldn’t refuse! I mean… look at how wealthy he is!”
Damien gritted his teeth. ‘I’m going crazy.’ He thought.
“Where is this place at?”
“Why?” his coworker raised an eyebrow. “What are you going to do?”
Damien walked fast towards his desk and started clearing up his things into his own bag. “I was just asking.”
“I don’t know, man.” The other shrugged. “I think it’s called Paradise Resort, though.”
Paradise Resort… that place is only a few miles from where their office was. He could get there just in time to confront his secret girlfriend.
“What are you going to do, man?” his coworker started becoming worried when he saw the agitated expression on Damien’s face. Damien had never been like that.
He was a calm person, the leader of their team. He was most composed and the type to never let his emotions get in his line of work. But this time, Damien looked like he was about to burst.
“Are you going there to have a swim?” he joked to lift Damien’s mood, but was only met with a deathly glare.
Damien wears the strap of his bag and then heads to the exit of the office while his coworker was trailing behind him. Damien stops and then turned his back.
“Don’t follow me.”
“What’s gotten into you, man?” he asked. “You’re not the type to fluster out by a single video. Are you alright? Are you sick from working overtime? Do you want me to call a taxi for you?”
Damien took a deep breath as he understood that his coworker was merely worried about him. He gave him a smile and shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. I am going home.”
“Alright. Be safe.”
He turned his back and marched outside the company and then quickly called for a cab. He enters inside and the driver asks where he was going. “Where to?”
“Paradise Resort.” He didn't even bat an eye and took out his phone to watch the news too.
“Sir, the routes to Paradise Resort have been rented out. We cannot go there.”
“Then drop me off at the closest point. I’ll walk.”
The cab driver nodded and proceeded to drive. As the engine was running, he once again takes a look at the news and observed his beloved girlfriend, Clarissa Norwood along with their boss, Bruce Colton.
Damien’s chest tightened that he wanted to punch something. How can she do this to him?
Damien had given her everything.
Even today’s overtime pay was all directed to Clarissa’s comfortable lifestyle. Everything he did… was all for her.
They had grown up together, and he had even gone through hell to make sure she gets a stable job. But this…
Was this all his efforts amounted to?
His woman, turning her back on him and latching onto a wealthier bastard?
Damien took a deep breath and played the news again, but it was the biggest mistake he ever did. As soon as he played it, Clarissa leaned closer to Bruce and pressed her lips on him for the entire world to see.
The kiss lasted for seconds, but it was like a lifetime of torment for Damien. Clarissa never kissed him the way she did with Damien, nor smiled that genuinely when she was with him.
Damien turned off his phone and looked out of the window to breathe. With a cold voice, he told the driver: “Speed up.”
Damien took out his phone and went to his gallery where browsed through his pictures with Clarissa. They looked so happy when they were children- running in the fields together, joking with each other and laying down in the meadows to watch the blanket of stars in the skies.
The male, who was always calm and collected, suddenly had a tear rolling from his eyes. He was already out of work, therefore, he felt like the need to toughen himself up was no longer necessary. As a team leader, he was always expected to be calm, but he couldn't take it anymore.
He was suffocating. There was not a single word of Clarissa that she would be marrying someone else!
Damien clutched into his bag and took out a small box, which contained a proposal ring he intended to give her tomorrow. He had planned for them to have a simple date in an expensive restaurant and propose to her there.
Clarissa was...
the only person that keeps him living.
And now...
She too, will become Damien's end.
They arrive at the Paradise Resort in ten minutes, but it was a little far. Damien gave his fare and then ran out of the vehicle to chase his beloved girlfriend. Rain was starting to pour and he had forgotten his umbrella back home. The fence separated him from the entrance of the resort. He had to run to the gate because the taxi couldn’t get there for the roads were blocked.Several expensive cars lined up at the sides of the road, but he paid no attention to them. He ran and ran until his lungs hurt. He finally reached the gate but the security stops him.“Invitation?”“I am Mister Richard's employee from Colton Corp. I have an emergency message to tell him.”“Give us the message and we will tell him.”“It’s discreet. Boss told me to keep it.”“Well, your emergency message ain’t reaching him. Get out boy. You’re ruining the show.”“Can’t you see I went into the rain to come here and deliver this message? It’s important!”But the security was not giving in. Damien had to find anothe
Richard stared at Damien with suspicious eyes while the woman behind him was sweating buckets. Damien frowned at Clarissa, but she couldn’t possibly look at him straight in the eye. “Why does he know you?” Richard asked his wife. “Who is he?”She was shaking. The woman finally glanced at Damien and he shook his head terribly. All of a sudden, she replies.“Yes, I know him.”Damien’s heart loosened and a smile erupts from his hopeless face. A little bit of confidence poured into him, but it didn’t take long before all of those momentary relief becomes snatched. Clarissa’s eyes were then clouded with tears. She sobbed on Richard's shoulders and the cameras focused on her. Damien listened.“He was my ex-boyfriend! He abuses me every day and tried to touch me even if I protested. Richard, please… you have to send him away!”Damien turned pale as the cameras flashed before him, taking pictures of his shocked face. He couldn’t feel anything… he couldn’t even absorb what she had accused hi
That night, Damien lost a friend at work. His coworker looked at him at disbelief and pushed the male away from him. “You’re not like this before, Damien.” He said out of spite. “Even if you were angry, you’d never grab anyone’s collar like that.”Damien was silent. He clenched his fists and bit his lip until he could savor the metallic taste of blood. “I didn’t do it.”“Well you fucking say that to the media.” His coworked grumbled. “Now that you’ve shown your terrible side, I have no doubts you actually abused Miss Clarissa.” “I fucking didn’t.”“That’s why she probably left you.” “That’s fucking enough!” Damien launched himself towards his coworker and lands a punch on his cheek. The coworker drops to the floor, bleeding through his mouth. Damien stood there, stunned at what he had done. His coworker weakly looked at him and shook his head.He angrily stood up even when his legs were wobbly. He spat the blood to the ground and gave him a rejected look. “You fucking changed,
Damien woke up the earliest and bathed using a hose in the garden. He picked out what was left of his clothes, but they weren’t fit for work. He wore his gray hoodie and some worn navy-blue pants. He walked to work, even if was very far. He couldn’t afford to call a cab because he had no money. As he reached the urban part of the city— where the big skyscrapers mounted to the sky— he took a deep breath and made his way to the bank. The security guard looked at him with a suspicious face. Damien shrugged and then proceeded to the desk to inquire about a loan.“Do you have any identification card, Sir?” the lady in the desk asked her as she was getting out some forms to the small box beside her for Damien to fill out. Damien scratched his head. “I’m sorry, miss. I lost my wallet and it had all my I.Ds in it.”The lady stopped. She dropped the paper and then proceeded back to typing very fast in her keyboard. “You can come back once you have an I.D, sir. We cannot process that so quic
He picked up the piece of paper on the floor and then barged out of the company while gritting his teeth and holding the box of his last belonging with him. When Damien was out of the building, he approached a nearby pillar, put the box down, and then took a while to breathe. His palms were bruised. So bruised because he had been clenching them since the beginning of the day. The little money he had was the last thing he was holding on to. He checked the money inside the envelope. This was two months’ worth of pay. With that money, he could pay off half of his debt to the landlady. He stashed the money into his pockets, securely and then left. He walked home that afternoon, and of course, he arrived when it was almost nighttime. His knees were near to giving up, but Damien was used to walking home from another city away at that point. Whenever he would pass by shops with television on, it always showed the prestigious wedding premiere of Clarissa and Richard.Had Damien noticed it,
Damien is then sent to the interviewer’s office, where he waits on the same benches along with four other interviewees. After twenty minutes, a secretary came out of the interviewer’s door and calls out Damien’s name. At first, she was cheerful, but when she laid sight of Damien’s face, her smile quickly faded. “It’s your turn, sir.” Damien composed himself. “Thank you.”Why did he feel unwelcomed?He entered the interviewer’s office. He was a short, stout man with piercing black eyes and a credible mustache. He gandered at Damien and then offered him a seat. Damien settles down, gives him an envelope, and gives the interviewer the time to read his documents. Damien’s resume was brilliant. He had many achievements and awards from previous works, and one could tell from the first look at his resume that this man was the asset they needed. Damien was confident with his resume. He was even more confident of his performance.The interviewer began with some simple questions and then sl
Damien stared at the people before him and shook his head.“Look, I had a terrible day. If this is a prank, quit it out.”The girl named Ash sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I know you do not want to jump, Master Blackwell. Step out. Your father wants to see you.”“Father?” confusion is visible in the male’s eyes. “Sorry… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t think it is me you’re looking for.”“You are.” Ash leaned closer to him until he could feel her breath on his face. Damien averted his eyes from her and looked away. “Emerald eyes and jet black hair, with a small scar on your cheek. You are indeed Lord Blackwell’s son.”“Who—”Ash placed a finger on his lips cunningly and then shifted her eyes to the men behind her. “It’s him. Take him.”The men in black approached Damien and pulled him off the edge of the bridge. Several cars in the street would look at the suspicious sight in front of them but figured that they didn’t want to get involved so they kept on driving.When
Lord Tyrell sat on the far end of the long table while Damien was on the other end. Ash moved his plates to his side and served as their referee when things heat up. The girl then stationed herself beside Lord Tyrell.The dining hall was very silent. The two didn't know who should start eating. Ash cleared her throat. “Please, Master Damien, dig in.” Someone had to say it.Damien said nothing and took his spoon and fork. He weighed the utensil in his hand and realized how heavy they were. He then starts eating his breakfast, and his father follows.Ash could feel the awkwardness between the two. She crossed her arms across her chest and leaned against the window while watching the two eat. Now, it would be interesting who would be the first one to break the tension.She waited and waited, but there was not a single word being shared between the two. They finished their meals and have not yet said a single thing to each other. She was about to break the ice, when all of a sudden, thank