Fated To Love You Forever

Damien folded the last of the shirts he had taken out of the closet, neatly into the small traveling bag on the bed.

The time for his flight wasn’t long now so he needed to get a head start. He wasn’t packing a lot of things, just enough for a few days and when he was done with the shirts, his eyes skimmed through the room to check for anything else he might be missing.

As he began to zip up the traveling bag, his phone vibrated in his jeans pocket.

Praying silently that it wasn’t work related, Damien slipped his phone out and smiled a little when he saw it was his mother calling. As long as it wasn’t work, it was fine and also it had been a while since he’d heard from her.

“Mother.” He greeted, zipping the bag with one hand and then carrying it to the corner of the room, “How are you doing?”

“Hey, honey.” She cooed from the other end, “I’m okay. I just wanted to hear from you. Are you good?”

Damien flipped through the documents he had procured from his bottom drawer, his left hand firmly holding his phone to his right ear as he replied, “Yeah I’m great, thank you.”

“That’s good. So… according to what we spoke about the last time, you’re not busy at all this week, nor do you have any important meetings or projects. So this means that you’re free to have dinner with your sister and I, right?”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

Damien chuckled, dropping yet another file in the pile of documents he needed his secretary to attend to while he was gone. “So you’re keeping tabs on me now? Is that right?” He asked joking and his mother responded by letting out a small laugh, “Hey, you did tell me that yourself. But… back to dinner. What would you like to eat? I could make all your favorites. I won’t skip even one, you just trust me.”

Damien paused in the middle of flipping through a document. He couldn’t come to this dinner because of his flight, and he also couldn’t tell his mother no, because he didn’t want her to know about his trip to London as it would bring up a lot of questions. None which he felt like discussing.

“Um… I can’t do dinner, mom.” He finally said, feeling bad internally. He had turned down her offer so many times, and this was so unusual of him. It was also beginning to look like he was doing it on purpose, and he didn’t like it at all.

“Oh, come on, Damien. You assured me that you wouldn’t be busy this week. Your sister and I have been looking forward to this. Layla wants to see you so much. She wants to tell you about her school ceremony coming up, amongst some other things Damien, come on.”

He could note the hurt in her voice and he even imagined her sulking as she said this, and guilt pinched him hard in the chest.

Sighing, he pushed the files he was looking through and tried to gather his words, “Mom, I really want to hang out with you and Layla. It’s been a while and I think it’d be very nice, but I can’t. I can’t because… I’ll be going on a trip to London. The flight’s already been booked.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Damien instantly regretted it and the heavy silence that instantly descended was not helping. His mother knew how much he despised that place, and the vow he had never made never to go back was not lost on her, so it was bound to come as a shock to her naturally.

“London?” She finally breathed, her voice strained but curious, “Why are you going to London Damien? What business do you have there? Is there something you are not telling me?”

Damien sucked in a deep breath. He didn’t want to talk about this, but he knew there was no way to avoid it, so he spilled the beans. He rarely hid things from his mother and no matter how hard he tried, she always had a way of knowing about so keeping it from her seemed useless. “I’m going to see Madison, no the Connors rather. I know it’s strange, but there are so many things that I still don’t…”

“Oh Damien, what do you want to do with that family that made life miserable for us? What do you want to do now?”

“Mother…” He began but she cut through before he finished, “Okay now, Damien… I didn’t want to say it before as I was keeping this to myself but then what do you want to do about Madison then? I saw those stories in the papers, and I read about everything you did to that poor girl. Everything I saw that you did was absolutely terrible! It was mean and unnecessary, and I could tell that all you kept doing was bullying her and feeling good about it, but know this, I will never been in support of that behavior and I won’t ever be.”

“Mom what are you talking a-”

“No, no, let me speak. Let me finish.” She interrupted before he could say anything further, “If you’re going to London just to bully that girl most especially, then I am not in support at all. If you want to make her feel so bad, even in her own space, then I really do not think you should. You’ve been treating that poor girl so badly and I know you’re angry of course because of what happened in the past, but I think you might be going overboard. She did nothing to deserve any of this. Especially since she-”

“Oh mother will you just cut it!” Damien yelled through her words, cutting her off sharply. His fists were clenched angrily as he struggled to keep his shaking body steady, “If you would just keep quiet and listen to me then you might actually get a clue of what’s happening.”

There was no response on the other end, so he knew she was waiting for him to speak finally giving him the change to say something and he began to relax.

“I…I’m not going to London to bully Madison or take my anger out on her just like you are thinking. I might not even go to see her, despite how badly I want to. I want you to know that I’m going there to get answers. There are so many things that happened in the past that are still very unclear, so many unanswered questions, so many events that didn’t make any sense at all, and the Connors are the only ones that can answer that. Madison is the only one who can answer them and that’s it. So whatever you’re thinking I’m going to do there, is the complete opposite and…” He trailed off, sighing deeply his chest tightening as memories assailed him instantly.

“Oh, honey…” He heard his mother say in a teary voice, “I’m really sorry about my words earlier.”

“Thank you mother.” Damien said softly, and he could hear her soft chuckle and sniff from the end of the phone.

“I am in full support of this. You know back then everything that happened between you two, really made me sad and I hope you might be able to get the answers you seek. I’m proud of you for being willing to take this step, and I hope you can work everything out so you’d finally be able to let the past go. It’d be good for you both.”

Damien felt his heart squeeze in pain at his mother’s words, and he voiced his gratitude out again, “Thanks, mom.”

“Goodluck honey, and don’t forget, if you ever want to talk, I’m here for you okay?”

Damien chuckled softly, grateful that she understood what he was going through.

After they talked briefly about what he would be doing over in London, she didn’t cut of the call immediately and instead kept him company on the phone as he continued to pack everything he needed.

Soon the atmosphere was no more tense, and in a few minutes Damien found himself beginning to laugh.

When it was time for him to sort out his files from work, he informed her telling her he would be busy and needed to concentrate and bading each other farewell, she finally ended the call.

Damien sat on his bed, looking over at his packed traveling bag and assuring himself that he was doing the right thing.

He stretched out his hand to grab the bottle of whiskey on the table and taking a long swig, he put it down again and continued to work.

…….

Madison jumped up at the sound of her ringtone.

She had been lying on her bed for hours with nothing to do. Mostly because it was the weekend and she didn’t have work.

This was exactly why she hated weekends, as there was nothing to do the entire day and she hated being idle as it would make her think.

Smiling widely when she saw that it was Alvarez calling, she swiped to answer and brought it to her ear.

“Hey, Alvarez! How are you.”

“I’m okay, and you.”

“I’m fine. Oh my goodness! It’s so good to hear from you. I’m so sorry, I’ve been meaning to call you for a while now, but something always comes up and I always seem to forget.” She sighed apologetically.

Alvarez laughed, “It’s okay. You’re busy, I get it and I really don’t mind being the one to call. Are you good though?”

Madison smiled widely, her face lifting. Talking with her best friend always put her in a good mood. “I’m fine, I guess. What about you? And how is your wife? Is the baby here yet?”

Alvarez gave a loud laugh, “No, not yet but soon enough, I think. Like I said before, you’ll be the first to know. It’s a promise that I intend to keep.”

“Alright then.” She laughed and he joined in it too. She suddenly remembered something that had happened a few days ago. The call with Damien the other day, one she’d been meaning to talk to him about. After she had deliberated on calling Alvarez in the early hours of the morning to inform him of the call, she had completely forgotten still, and there was no better time to bring it up than now.

So clearing her throat she said, “Something weird happened a few days ago. I planned to call you but I forgot about it.”

“Something weird?” Alvarez asked, and Madison could hear the worry peeking into his voice, “What is it?”

“Damien called.” She blurted, “He was acting so strange really and saying lot of things that seemed to good to be true. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious and honest, but then again, he was drunk so..”

“What did he say?” Alvarez asked, sounding more interested than she thought he would be and that she honestly didn’t mind.

“Well, he apologized a lot. About everything, about the letters… He said he didn’t get them, and he said something about making it up to me. His words… they felt strange and I wasn’t sure if he was being genuine. People say a lot of things when they’re drunk, you know so I just waved his talk over.”

Alvarez hummed in agreement, “You’re right, Maddie. But what do you think though?”

She froze in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that question, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she didn’t really know. He was drunk, and he probably would have forgotten about it. It was just a drunken mistake, and she had even said this.

Madison’s heart clenched at that thought but she dismissed it, blinking as the last thing she needed was to get emotional now.

“I don’t know what to believe at all.” She whispered into the phone. There was a brief moment of silence, before she said again, “Before he ended the call though, he kept on muttering something about coming to London to get or meet me. Or I have no idea what he meant by that. Do you? You work with him, yeah? You would know if he had any plans of going to London… or was it just another drunken bluff?” She laughed gently.

She started to worry when there was no response from Alvarez, and she called his name slowly, “Alvarez? Alvarez are you there?”

He cleared his throat, and then dropped a bombshell, one she just didn’t want to hear at all, “He was telling the truth about coming to London. Damien has a flight booked to London already, and he will be there very soon.”

Madison felt like her chest had just exploded, “What? What did you just say?” Her hands began to shake as she tried to wipe off the perspiration on them, “H-he’s coming to London? W-why? For what?”

Different thoughts ran through her mind, as to why he would come all the way to London. Did he really just want to see her or would it turn out that he was here to get his revenge on her, and her family finally.

The stalker, the threat letter, Damien’s weird call… everything raced through her head so quickly that Madison began to feel dizzy.

“What does he want here? What does he want from me? P-please if you know what he’s planning, can you tell me. I need to know and I…” She trailed off, laying her hand on her chest trying to calm her heavily beating heart.

“Madison… calm down, okay? Just calm down. It’s nothing to worry about, I assure you.”

“No! I can’t do this anymore. I still haven’t recovered from the call from my dad and now this? What did I-”

“Wait, your dad called?” Alvarez asked, his voice hoarse with surprise, “When? What did he want?”

Trying not to break down in a pool of tears, Madison cursed inwardly at her slip of tongue and shakily she recounted everything that had happened at the market yesterday.

What her father had said, the threats, the accusations, amongst other things and when she was done, a lump had already hung in her throat, but Madison didn’t cry. She was just tired of crying.

“Jeez, Maddie. I am so sorry about that. Had I known about this, I wouldn’t have said a thing.” Alvarez added his voice low but she just shook her head although he could not see her, and said, “It doesn’t matter now. However do you know if it’s going to be a disaster. Should Damien come here, would he come and cause more harm than good? Tell me what you know Alvarez, please.” She begged.

“Maddie… just relax.” He cooed, “Okay just cool down. Take some deep breaths, and steady yourself.”

Although Madison felt herself beginning to break down, she managed to do as he said, her hands still on her chest and she rubbed it softly.

“I spoke with Damien, and I can assure you that he’s not coming to London to get you, or hurt you. Whatever he might have said on the phone that night, he was just drunk like you noticed and I promise you he won’t cause you any harm. He just needs to get some answers about the past. He wouldn’t like me telling you this, but I just have to, so you can be at ease. He wants to get some answers from your family. So you don’t need to panic at all.”

“You keep telling me to calm down, but all these you are saying is just adding to my anxiety. You are not even listening to me at all!” She exclaimed, yelling over his voice, and whimpering her voice breaking she asked, “Whose side are you on? Whose side are you on, because it can’t be my side. You just don’t understand me, okay? You don’t, at all! If you did you would know why I don’t want him here. You would know that I don’t want him anywhere near-”

“Madison, you need to relax. Please. I know that…”

“No, no! You don’t!” She half yelled, and shaking her head, Madison angrily ended the call, groaning in anger as she tossed her phone to the wall, watching the screen shatter at the impact.

Her breathing was hollow already and she clutched at her stomach, desperately trying to catch her breath as her eyes began to burn.

Letting herself slump down the wall she was resting on, she fell heavily to the floor, her shoulders racking with sobs as tears began to spill down her face.