SIX YEARS OF SILENCE

CHAPTER TWO: FAMILIARITY

Seraphina’s pov

As the meeting was about to end, a beautiful woman entered the boardroom and approached me and gave me a schedule of when other meetings would happen in the course of this project. There were over six different meetings but I anticipated that already. While blackwood was talking to me about how I had made a good first impression, I could feel his eyes piercing into my side, he was trying to place a resemblance that he wasn't going to find. The last time he saw me I was a 17-year old really going through it, I had no jawline, chubby cheeks and acne. I look nothing like that now. I looked at him to find him still staring,and I didn't look away.

As soon as the meeting was over,I introduced myself to the junior architects and some of the board members and as we were leaving the room, a voice sounded

“Ms.haydes,stay a minute”,

Blackwood turned to me as if to say to calm down before he left the room. As soon as I heard that I felt my hands getting sweaty,I took a deep breath and I calmed myself. With my back still to him, I found myself replying, “Why?”

“ Because I said so” What a conceited prick

“ Fine.” I turned back.

I was expecting to still see him at the other end of the room, but he was already walking towards me and I didn't hear him move. He was walking like he had all the time in the world, like he had no reason whatsoever to walk quickly. Then what came out of his mouth made my heart stop

“Haydes”,he said it slowly like he was tasting it

“That's your mother’s maiden name?” I didn't respond, I just stared at him calmly.

His gaze hardened

“Ms.haydes I don't like being ignored.” and with a smile I said

“ Yes Mr. Vale, it's my mother’s birth name”. He still stared at me with that hard gaze then he said

“You argued with me 4 times today. Nobody argues with me”

“Then you're used to the wrong people.”

“hmmm”

That sound did things to her insides. Something like dark amusement clouded his face but it disappeared as quickly as it came. He stepped closer

“Ms.haydes I don't like not knowing things and when a woman comes into my company like she has something to prove, I like to be aware”

“ I'm not here to prove anything, I'm here to do my job.”

He looked at my fists that I didn't know I was clenching and with an indescribable look in his eyes.

He said

“Welcome to vale holdings” while he shook my hand.

As soon as I stepped out of the room. I released a breath I didn't know I was holding, my hands were still trembling. I knew the game had just begun.

Damien's pov

I watched Seraphina leave , my eyes unintentionally looking at her ass, full and round enough for me to hold in my hands. I watched her enter the elevator. I couldn't shake the fact that I knew her from somewhere or at least her face and I don't believe in coincidences, not even in the slightest.

I went to my office and told Vivienne, my assistant, to send any documents and information she could find on Seraphina haydes, I saw her raise her eyebrows at my request and I ignored it.

I intended on finding out everything there is to know about her. I poured myself a glass of wine as I waited for the files while I remembered how she stared at me down and refused to back down. It's been a long time since someone did that. Interesting.

I opened my laptop and the files beside me and I started looking.

Seraphina Haydes ,27 years old, studied architecture at Yale university and came out 1st in her class, worked in a small architecture firm for four years. Clean record, glowing letters of recommendations and a resume that made him understand blackwood. Nothing explained the flash of hatred and anger I saw or the way she stiffened when I brought up her mother's name. Then things started making sense, why I recognized those eyes, I saw her father's name and I could feel the anger rising. Voss. My father's most trusted executive and best friend.I'm very sure she knows who I am.

I didn't cancel Wednesday's meeting with the structural engineer. I didn't call blackwood, I didn't do anything any reasonable people who do when they found out they were being played. I didn't close the files, and I couldn't feel the anger that I was supposed to feel. The only thing I could feel was lust and hunger. The memory of her holding my stare and talking to me like I was beneath her had flashed in my head more times than I could count.

I took a sip of my wine and I was thinking of what to do,I texted her ‘dinner tomorrow 8pm.’ I wasn't going to let her know that I knew at least not yet. She had just stepped into the lion's den.

The fact that the daughter of a man I once saw as a father could both attract and intrigue me irritated me to no end, but I was going to play my cards right. She might be playing chess but I'm playing checkers.

I closed the files and I began looking over the blueprint of the construction. She's excellent. I'll give her that. She walked into his building with practically a fake name ,she had enough referrals and references that i would have normally hired her,i usually saw more reactions from workers, everyone always had a tell, except if they were trying to hide something. Xavier Voss's daughter, sitting in his boardroom, redesigning his tower

I was a few months from officially taking over the company,

I remembered hearing my father’s voice break for the first time in my life “he betrayed me and he's lying about it, I can't believe my oldest friend would do this to me.”

Something in me broke that day and has not healed since then. My father died a few days after that, and I made sure Richard Voss got whatever he deserved and I never for once questioned if I was right to do it or not spent the last 7 years of my life dismantling Voss constructions piece by piece. And if I could go back in time, I'd do it again.

, That's what you get for betraying a Vale.