Chapter 20: Sometimes, I Build
1323 Words
The following Thursday, Damien had his back resting on his office chair.
He wasn’t looking at the files piled up at the center of his table.
His gaze was distant, fixed on somewhere just beyond the ceiling.
Just like yesterday, it was still about the Carters, picturing the quiet devastation he heard in the man’s words, the same words that had prompted his research on that fraudster called Wellington.
The same words that had actually helped him in a way.
What he found in Graham Wellington’s file had been an eyesore of deceit, theft, and silenced victims, one of which was Robert himself.
Imagine a man that was once revered in almost all business circles… Now reduced to nothing in a city where he was once king?
Damien couldn’t even begin to imagine the shame, how it must have felt, going from praise to pity, from grace to grass.
“Shameful” Damien whispered in between grinding teeth.
Robert had not asked for his help. Not once. He had not even implied it. But that didn’t matter.
Damien wasn’t the type of man to ignore a debt especially one that had given him a piece of the truth he needed.
“I owe him.” He whispered again.
Then after a second had passed, he started to stretch out his hand to pick up his phone. His thumb hung for a little while before finally pressing the dial.
Meanwhile, at another end of the city, Robert Carter was sitting hunched over a modest desk in the really small office space that now functioned as the head center of what was left of his consulting firm.
He appeared a little bit anxious as he was trying to finalize the details of a proposal that, even if accepted, wouldn’t do much.
He sighed and was about to grab a coffee cup when he saw his phone’s screen lighting up.
An unknown number was calling; Robert stared at it, looking lost and slightly irritated.
He hated this kind of call,
“Just call with your damned number instead of looking like some sort of criminal. But then again who said it wasn't?”
He would have gone ahead to end the call but for some reason something made him answer,
“Hello?” He greeted with quiet suspicion.
The other party's voice came in smooth and clear,
“Mr. Carter? This is Richard Hale from Hale & Co. Investments. And we would like to back your business.”
Robert stiffened, his suspicion giving way to disbelief, bewilderment, and a good kind of alarm if there was anything like that. All three of them mixed in one.
For a moment, he wasn’t sure if he had heard right.
“Hale & Co?”
His heart thumped very hard again and twice as he blinked without control.
“I… I don't remember applying for any funding, I….”
A soft chuckle came from the other side to interrupt him.
“Oh indeed, you didn't, Just uhm…Consider it a recommendation from someone who believes in you.”
And just like that, the call ended.
Robert sat motionless, the phone still glued to his ear, his hand trembling as he slowly started to lower it.
It was like sleep paralysis, His lips parted, but no sound came out.
Was he finally going crazy or what?
“Did I even hear him correctly?”
That afternoon Isla had just stepped out of her boutique where she had spent the last few hours.
On impulse, she had decided to take a little detour since her father’s office wasn’t far off from the environment.
It had been a little long since she last checked in anyway, and something nudged her to do so now.
Thus, when she finally arrived and stepped inside the dull-looking building moments later, she wasn’t expecting anything.
However, on reaching and opening the door to the office, what she walked into wasn’t just unexpected; it was absurd.
Robert, her father who had since recovered from his earlier shell shock, was no longer sitting but standing with a strange but enthusiastic fire in his eyes.
The moment he spotted her, his grin grew so wide as he clapped his hands in a childlike manner; this was the happiest Isla had ever seen him in years.
What was going on?
“Pumpkin! You won’t believe it!” Robert laughed breathlessly.
“An investor just offered to fund my business! It just… it just happened! I got the call a few minutes ago…I swear no jokes, this is one hell of a miracle!”
Isla froze by the doorway, one of her brows arched while her mouth hanging slightly open.
She could hardly blink. “What?”
she gasped face crumpling in disbelief.
“Who?” She murmured.
“Come, come! Have a look!”
Robert gestured wildly, waving her over like a man who had just won the lottery.
Still, in mild shock, Isla dropped her bag on the tattered chair opposite the desk and moved slowly around it to join him.
He held out his phone like a prize trophy, pointing at the screen.
“Can you see it? Can you?”
Isla leaned in, narrowing her eyes to read.
“ Following our recent communication, Hale & Co. is pleased to inform you that we intend to extend full financial backing to Carter & Blythe Consulting. This recommendation came from a credible and highly respected source whose faith in your professional integrity influenced our decision. Expect further correspondence shortly”
Isla gasped again, eyes moving slowly away from the phone.
“I know that wording.” She reasoned.
That abrupt generosity. That ghostlike signature of doing just enough to remain unseen but unforgettable.
“Damien!”
Yes, only he could do something like this. But why? This wasn’t part of their deal. There had been no mention, no hint.
What was he doing now?
What did he really want?
Back at the mansion that evening, Isla marched straight to the study finding Damien at his usual spot at the rear. A thick hardcover book was resting against his knee.
He didn’t so much as glance up when the door hit the wall with a light thud.
"You helped my father," Isla blurted at once with folded arms,
Damien's eyes remained on the lines of his book, still not bothering to look up. "Is that a problem?"
Isla taken aback by his casualness threw up her hands to demand again,
"Why?" I mean, what do you even gain from this?”
This repeated question of hers was becoming a song since she got married to him. However, this time, it made Damien lift his head.
He regarded her like someone looking at a problem they had already solved but found mildly amusing to revisit.
"Does everything have to be a transaction?"
Isla opened her mouth, prepared to retort, but no words came. Her lips parted and closed again.
Thus, instead of speaking, she just stared numbly at him.
Damien uncrossed his legs and rose to his feet. Every step he took toward her made her pulse spike.
Isla didn’t move, her eyes did their best to follow him, blinking only once.
"You assume I only destroy,"
he said softly, stopping when they were just a few inches apart. “But sometimes, I build.”
There was something in his eyes now that caught her off guard.
It wasn’t his usual show of dominance or even sarcasm.
It was something else, something close to his stare at the dining room a day ago, a flash of tenderness.
Isla looked away first. Her eyes dropped as she tried to summon her voice.
Then finally all she could do was murmur,
“Thank you.”
When she finally looked up again, Damien was smirking in that maddeningly smug way that she had gotten used to, “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
- Writer
