SIX YEARS OF SILENCE

CHAPTER FOUR: INTIMIDATION

Seraphina’s pov

The next few weeks were not I was expecting at all, My life was completely reorganized around a man I was supposed to hate.I spent them with damien most of the time, he had inserted himself completely into the project, he came to the construction site every day and I know he's not supposed to do that because of the looks of surprise that's on people’'s faces everytime he arrives.

There was even a day where I was waiting for a cab to go home when I saw his car pull up

“What are you still doing here?” and I told him I was waiting for a car,

Then his door opened and he told me to get in.I tried telling him to not bother but he just stared at me until I got in the car. I couldn't help but notice the car smelled like him and I hated that I knew that. I told the driver my address and on the way to my house, I noticed him just levelling that stare on me ,but I was so sure I saw lust in his eyes and it disappeared

“Ms. haydes I don't have an answer, and I will get my answer”

“That's an odd game you're playing.”

“I don't play games that I'm not confident in,” he said. That was the end of that.

Today he was at the site again.

I had been seeing glimpses of the man my father had told me about, the unexpectedly funny comments. He remembered every little comment I had made, he remembered details of design I had mentioned 2 or 3 weeks before, and other days the hatred came back fully and it was usually triggered by little things like the way he signs his name,when he makes a comment about useless competition. On some days, I'd go home and spread my father's old files and remind myself why I was supposed to hate this man and not whatever it was already growing into.

Victoria and I were going over some changes when she said

“ I have been working for vale holdings for six years and he always delegates his work and he hasn't delegated a single thing on this project.”

“Maybe he likes the design.”

It was easier to work with him on some days and I refused to admit that out loud.

I was still in my office by 9pm going over the changes I had done to avoid any mistake, when I heard “What are you still doing here?”

Damian asked. His voice startled me so much that a sound came out. I'm so embarrassed, The ground should open up right now. Oh he asked a question

“I'm just going over some things I would leave soon” I told him

“I'm pretty sure I saw you yawning a few minutes ago, Go home.” he said ,

I still sat there quickly finishing up just for me to look up and he was still there looking, I realized he was waiting for me.

“You've been here since morning” he reached over and closed my laptop and he moved around the table

“Go home seraphina.”

It was the first time I heard him say my name and it made my thighs clench ,and I saw him look down,he had seen it. He moved closer ,I had to tilt my head up to meet his eyes

“I meant what I said in the meeting about watching you not fold.”

“Was that a compliment?” I replied with a low voice.

“It was an observation, I do however want to know what makes you fold.”

“You're not going to find out.”

“Oh but I will.”

Then he stepped back and I stood up and packed my stuff and he walked me to the elevator.

We were both silent , the only sound was the humming of the elevator. We could both feel it and I knew something dangerous was going to come from this, the elevator door opened and he walked out without turning back.

I couldn't sleep that night. I was tossing and turning, then I slid my hand down and touched myself while thinking about him and I knew the line between hatred and the other emotion I was feeling for him had blurred and I didn't think I wanted it to stop.

Damien’s pov

I didn't know why I had told her I wanted to see her fold, I knew I had changed everything between us.

I sat at my desk with the plans spread across my table,I had known who she was from the first day. I took her to dinner to see if she could tell and if she reminded me of him.

Every single day for the past month has been a choice to not mention it, a choice that's becoming harder to defend too myself every passing day.

I told myself it was strategic to not say anything yet, that I was trying to figure out her motive because I knew she wasn't just here for a job but to get revenge. It was getting harder and harder to deny and I didn't want to admit it but I just wanted her to keep being there.

I brought up my fathers file on xavier voss again, the full one this time, I always avoided reading it, I had inherited it along with the company, I could never bring myself to finish it. There were things that I read that I never really understood.

I decided it was time to read it all. There was termination later but not Xavier's, a man named Lucien. I was confused why another person’s termination letter was in Xavier's file and I knew my father wouldn't keep this here by accident. It was dated a year before Xavier left.

There were different memos of stealing company funds and clients money in a project Xavier had been managing, misplaced funds that hadn't been explained. I saw a later in my fathers handwriting saying “He knows, take care of it before he finds out more.”

I read the note 4 times.

“Take care of it before he finds out more.”

I had built years of hatred on the belief that Xavier had betrayed my father, I believed it was out of wickedness,out of greed that he'd left his company and he had picked his ambition over the loyalty of his best friend. I had never once thought that Xavier left because of fraud, he had left because he found something.

I closed the file, I didn't call anyone and for the first time in my life I was regretting what I had done. He remembered what Seraphina said “some get sabotaged.”

Did she know?

She hadn't accused me, she said it as a door and I wasn't sure I wanted to know what was on the other side.

I had built my life and my business on certainty and uncertainty for a

man like me was like the world shifting beneath me.