Fated To Love You Forever

Damien ignored the greetings of all his employees as he walked through the building and into his office.

He had been in a sour mood all night, up till this morning. Right from when he had woke up, to the shower and even when he had dressed up he had just been angry, and right now the last thing he needed was another reason for his fury to escalate.

Fuming, he dropped his briefcase carelessly on the desk as he got into his office, and then he plopped down on a chair.

He had a lot of work to do so he really needed to get on with it, but as he turned on the computer and began to tap away, he found out that he just couldn’t concentrate.

His mind kept wandering, and he kept raking his hand in his hair.

Muttering a curse under his breath, Damien shut the computer and leaned back into the chair.

He could not bring himself to stop thinking about last night. The call with Madison, the way she had lashed out at him, and no matter how hard he tried to get himself to stop thinking, it wasn’t working.

More so, the one image he was unable to take out of his head was the relaxed, carefree demeanor of Alvarez when he was on the phone with Madison.

It hurt him more than he expected it would, and yes he did convinced himself countless times that it didn’t matter, but then why did it keep replaying it in his head. The more he thought about it, the angrier he was becoming.

Alvarez had looked free? Why had their conversation seemed so cozy? When he was on the phone with Madison she had not even given him one second to breathe out a single word, or make a statement as all she did was cut him off and shut him down every time he tried to speak but then all of a sudden… Alvarez had began talking to her, and they had chatted happily like everything was okay.

Damien felt a flash of anger run through him, as he began to think of the only logical reason to explain this find closeness.

Could it be possible that something was going on between them? Damien wondered. But that was a very foolish thought.

They were just friends, always had been strictly friends for years, and Alvarez was happily married to a beautiful woman he loved. Damien muttered under his breath, cursing himself inwardly. Why would he even consider something like that? What had come over him?

At intervals, Damien would hiss in disgust, and anytime he closed his eyes, he could still hear and feel the venom in Madison’s voice when she asked him to leave her alone. The pure anger that filled her voice when she instructed him to give Alvarez the phone… Damien struck his fist on the desk, getting up from his chair and walking towards the cabinet.

What made her behave like that? How dare she treat him like that? Why would she talk to him like he was a child… cut him off at every word like he didn’t know what to say? What the freaking hell did she even take him for?

Still fuming, he unlocked the inner drawer of the cabinet, and going through the files and papers scattered within he searched thoroughly until he found out what he was looking for.

He held it up and stared at it for a while – It was the one picture of Madison he had kept in his office, for so long, and looking at this picture used to break his heart and put him into a deep state of nostalgia, but surprisingly not this time.

Now all he could think of when he stared at her picture was anger at the way she had flared up at him, and his mouth curling bitterly Damien reached out into the lower drawer where he kept his cigarettes to take out a lighter.

He stared intently at the picture one last time and without a second thought, he lit up the litter and bringing the flame to the very edge of the picture, he then let it fall from his hand.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

As he watched the picture go up in flames, for the first time since forever Damien did not feel the slightest bit of regret.

As the paper burned away, he came to a decision one that seemed irreversible.

Maybe It was time to throw all of those memories he had of her away. Yes! Madison wasn’t important to him in any way whatsoever anymore, and he might not have known it before, using the hate gnawing at him to disguise it but last night at that bar had made him see things more clearly.

Now all he knew was that there was no hope for him and Madison. Their love story was a lost cause and that was all it would ever be.

Walking back to his desk, Damien picked up his telephone ringing for his secretary, and in mere seconds she was in his office.

“You called for me, sir?” She asked, her voice shaky.

Damien suspected it had something to do with the way he had lashed out at her earlier this morning, when she had greeted him but he didn’t care.

He turned to her, “Remember I asked you to book a flight to London for me right?”

She nodded, scrolling through the tablet in her hand, “Yes sir. And it has been booked for…”

“Cancel it.” Damien cut in, before she could finish her sentence.

His secretary looked confused, “Sir?”

Damien felt his jaw tic as he glared at her. “Are you trying to be incompetent or didn’t you hear me the first time? I said you should cancel it.” He roared, banging his hand on the table.

“I… I’m s-sorry sir.” She stammered, wiping her hand on her skirt, “I did hear you. It’s just that if we cancel it now, it’d be impossible to get a refund and-”

“I don’t give a fuck about the money.” Damien spat irritation coating his face, “Just cancel the flight. The airport can keep the money for all I care! Is that understood?”

The secretary tucked a hair behind her ear and staring at the floor she replied, “Y-yes sir, I understand.”

Damien glared at her for a few moments and then he waved her away, not taking his eyes off her form until she scurried out of the office and shut the door behind her.

Damien shook his head.

He was done. He was done with every single thing that concerned Madison. He had decided that he didn’t give two fucks about it anymore.

There was no point going to London anymore because it would be futile, stupid, and a waste of good resources, since she wouldn’t listen to him or let him speak. He didn’t care anymore, he just didn’t care at all.

Fuck the rest of it. Fuck her side of the story too. It wasn’t important to him.

Whether she was pregnant or not, while she was disowned… well he would not take it upon himself to find out what happened.

Henceforth, Madison Connor was no longer a priority. He tried to convince himself that she never was, and never would be. She was also not relevant to him in any way whatsoever.

He took a deep breath and repeated those thoughts over and over in his head, trying to block out every thought of her, and her on with his life.

Finally when it felt like he had enough, Damien buried himself in the loads upon loads of work that he had piled up on the desk, and slowly began to sieve through them, intent on keeping himself busy.

…….

Madison exhaled in relief as she put down the last crates of bread she had been assigned to set up.

Her hands on her hips, she observed them once more, checking to make sure they were placed a good distance away from each other to allow for proper cooling.

When she was done and satisfied, she motioned to the workers responsible for tying the loaves in fancy plastic bags and packaging them, assigning them their work and as they began to do their job dutifully, Madison headed back to her station.

The supervisor of her section was around today and he was monitoring all the workers very closely, and as usual Madison was only too eager to impress.

Especially since she had heard from her friend Gina that at the end of each month, the supervisor would release a list of names of workers who had been unserious or caught slacking, and they would be paid their salary for the month and then let off.

Madison had been serious with her job from day one, and this piece of information only made her work harder and try to be more careful.

She just didn’t want to get into any sort of trouble, and after the supervisor had commended her a week before, she had been working even harder. Now, the last thing she wanted was anything that would break her positive hardworking streak.

As Madison headed back into the kitchen, she felt her phone begin to vibrate in her apron.

Freezing on her feets, she looked around to make sure it was safe to check her phone. They were not allowed to use their phones unless they were on lunch break, and retreating into a corner, she slipped the cell out and smiled in surprise when she saw that it was her mother calling.

The building was quite noisy from all the workers inside going on with their daily activities, so Madison stealthily made her way out of the building. She knew she needed to be quick before they would notice she was gone, and so she swiped the answer button on the phone and placed it on her ear.

“Hello, mother.” She greeted, still pleasantly surprised about her mother’s call.

She had gotten used to not getting any calls from her family members except her mother once in a while, and even then it had been a long while since they spoke.

“How are you doing, daughter?”

The fact that her mother sounded happy to talk to her made her feel even much better, and a smile spreading across her face she answered, “I’m great, mom. How are you? How is father doing?”

At the mention of her father, the silence that followed was understandable.

Madison hardly ever asked about him, and now she had no idea what even came over her. The nature of their relationship was such now that he did not even want to hear her name, and it was mutual to her too. She still loved him, but she was keeping the distance he wanted.

After a brief silence, her mother muttered some brief response about her father being okay, and Madison gave an awkward cough when she finished.

“Erm, so how are you? How is work?” Her mother asked after she’d finish talking about her father and sighing, Madison proceeded to tell her mother just how things were going for her, also excluding the fact that she had a possible stalker of course.

There was no need to unnecessarily raise any alarms to her mother. She also talked about work, and her lovely colleagues, and suddenly remembering the call with Damien, she narrated the whole thing to her mother as well.

“What!” Her mother hissed, cutting her off in the middle of her story, “No, that is unacceptable. On no account do I want you talking or communicating with Damien Daniels. Stay away from that boy!”

Madison was taken aback by the anger in her mother’s voice. She couldn’t understand why she sounded so tense about the whole thing, and now she had to clarify something.

“Mother… there’s no need to sound like that. It’s not like I called him or even planned to talk to him. I called to talk to Alvarez, but then for some weird reason the call was picked up by Damien. Probably they had been together at the time, but apart from that I promise you there’s nothin-”

“I said what I said, Madison. Stay away from that boy. Cut all ties with him. And the other one too. Alvarez or whatever his name is. I want you to keep your distance from both of them.”

For a while Madison was speechless. She knew that her mother only had her best interests at heart, but why was she talking like this?

“I don’t understand, mother. Why would you ask me to do that?”

She heard her mother sigh heavily, “Madison, I am your mother and I know what is best for you. I know what’s good for you and what isn’t. I don’t want anything that’s going to get in the way of this little happiness you are experiencing now, darling. We both know that anything connected to or related to the past is only going to break you down and make you overthink, so please just listen to me.”

Tears pooled up in Madison’s eyes at her mother’s words, and she knew she was partly right, but now there were some things she just couldn’t accept.

That thing being that she cut ties with Alvarez. She wouldn’t even be able to fathom it. Sure, she’d tried to cut off all ties with him back then in New York, but it had been impossible.

With all the things he’s done for her now, severing all ties with him was certainly not going to be a good pay bank. Heck! She couldn’t cut of Alvarez out of her life. Not now, not ever!

“I can’t cut my ties with Alvarez mother. He has been there for me… he still is even now. When no one else was there for me, not even you mother, he was there. He treated me like an elder brother, supported me both emotionally and financially when I needed it, and there are a whole lot of other things he has done for me which I don’t want to mention. I don’t know why you would tell me to cut off ties with my best friend, but I’m so sorry I can’t do it.”

She wiped away the tears that were in her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt, as she spoke. About Damien… he was a different story altogether and she didn’t even want to bring him up again.

She was at work and couldn’t afford to have an emotional breakdown, so she avoided talking about Damien entirely.

“Madison…I’m only trying to think of you here. Your future, your happiness and…”

“What happiness, mother?” Madison scoffed, rubbing her hands on her jeans as the tears spilled from her eyes rolling down her cheeks, “I’m not happy, mom. I’ve never been. I’m just blank, if there’s a word like that. The past, the present, it doesn’t make any difference, to what I’ve gone through, and what I’ve endured. I don’t even know what that word happiness means anymore, what it feels like, and there’s no hope for it for someone like me. It’s a lost cause that even thinking about it sounds remotely strange and impossible.”

“Madison just…”

“Just drop this topic mother, I beg you.” Madison held back the sob that threatened to escape her, placing a hand over her mouth to keep herself from crying.

Thankfully, her mother said nothing further, and honestly Madison was grateful for that.

Sniffing, she wiped away the traces of tears on her face, looking down at her watch. She had just two minutes left to spare before the supervisor would get back, and hopefully it would be enough time for small talk, with her mother.

Trying hard to make her voice sound cheery, Madison cleared her throat and bringing the phone to her lips, she said albeit softly, “So, mother, how did your day go?”