Torn between Two Titans
Damian rose from his seat in one fluid, deliberate motion, his gaze lingering a fraction too long on the couple locked in a kiss on the dance floor. Something dark flickered in his eyes before he turned away, the air around him practically crackling with restrained fury. Without a word, he strode off, and Seraphina unwilling to be left behind or humiliated hurried after him, her heels clicking against the marble in frantic pursuit.
Across the room, Eric abruptly broke away from the kiss, staring at Cathy in stunned disbelief.
"Miss Cathy, are you drunk?" His tone was calm, but his brows furrowed sharply.
Her breath came fast, her lips trembling with a dry, nervous laugh. "No, Mr. Eric. I'm not drunk, far from it."
"Then would you care to explain what you just did?" His voice cooled further, each word slicing with quiet disapproval.
Cathy swallowed hard, eyes glistening. "The truth is, Mr Eric, I've liked you for a long time now. Ever since you and the boss moved here. I've tried everything to make you notice me, but, you just never did. I'm so sorry. I couldn't hold it in anymore."
Eric's expression didn't soften. "Apology accepted. But let's be clear this will never happen again. Our work protocol strictly forbids office romance, and I will not risk my career for you. And for the records," His gaze pinned her in place. "...I don't like you. Take that as my final answer."
Without another glance, he turned and walked away, leaving Cathy frozen in place, heat rising to her cheeks. She wished, in that moment, that the floor would simply open and swallow her whole.
Meanwhile, Damian cut through the hallway like a storm in human form, his guards trailing close behind. Every step radiated a cold, lethal energy. Abruptly, he stopped.
"Where's Eric?" he asked, voice low but edged with steel.
"I'm here, sir," Eric replied quickly, jogging up to join him.
Damian's jaw tightened. "Explain to me how that imbecile got into my party."
"The theme was 'employees and their companions,' sir. Anyone could've entered under the guise of being a guest's companion," Eric said carefully.
Damian's lips curled in contempt. "I want that criminal off my property. Now."
"Yes, sir." Eric turned to leave at once.
Damian's voice dropped, venom in every syllable. "Eva, you'll get what's coming to you."
Before he could move on, Seraphina darted forward, her perfume trailing in her wake.
"Damian, wait for me!" she called, her tone softening as she caught up. She tilted her head, eyes wide in feigned hurt. "Damian, can you stop treating me less hostile? It was just a kiss and you bit me like that? What do you think ma'am Eleanor would say if she finds out you hurt me like this?"
"Here we go again," Damian muttered under his breath, his voice a low growl of exasperation.
"You hurt me, Damian! That's domestic violence!" Seraphina's voice rose in a sharp mix of accusation and desperation.
Damian's lips twitched, almost into a laugh. So that's the next card she's playing?
"You didn't just hurt me physically, you hurt me emotionally!" she pressed on, eyes glistening as though she were the victim of some great tragedy. "All I've ever done is love you, Damian, and,"
But Damian was already walking away, his guards falling in step behind him. He didn't have the patience for her performance. His voice carried back to her, cold and dismissive:
"Go back to your hotel room, Seraphina. Or better yet, go back to California to mom, where you came from."
The words hit like a slap, and her cheeks burned with humiliation. "I'll tell, Damian! I'll tell your mother everything! About how you've been mistreating me, and about your rumored wife! You'll see!"
Then Damien stopped in his tracks, then gently turned back to her.
"A single word about her and you are dead!" He said in between clenched teeth then he angrily turned walking away.
"You think I am scared of you? Well I am not. And I don't feel threatened, not even one bit. I'll tell your mom everything! I said I'll tell your mom Damian! Gush I hate him"
But he was gone before she finished, leaving her stranded in the middle of the hallway with her pride in pieces. She had imagined this night ending in glamour, not disgrace.
When she turned to retreat, her breath caught, a pair of wide eyes stared at her from the shadows. A witness. Panic surged through her. Someone had heard her argument with Damian, which meant someone now knew she wasn't Mrs. Lopez. The thought made her stomach twist.
As the figure stepped into the light, Seraphina recognized her, the same young woman Eric had been kissing earlier. Cathy.
A sudden, irrational rage flared. Her hands itched to slap the smug look she imagined on Cathy's face, to rip that glossy hair from her head. But then she wondered why she should feel that way, she asked herself. She had no claim on Eric. But the truth clawed at her, it wasn't Damian's rejection that stung the most tonight, she was long used to that. No... it was the sight of Eric, it was the fact that Eric, a lowly right hand man, she had allowed into her body, had the audacity to frolic with another woman right before her face. It hurt her in ways she couldn't explain.
Her eyes narrowed into a glare that could cut glass. Then, with a sharp turn, she walked away, heels clicking like gunshots.
Cathy stood frozen, her heart hammering. She couldn't believe what she had just overheard. After fleeing the dance floor in humiliation from Eric's blunt rejection, she was going to look for Eva, but she was shocked to see the drama unfolding before her, so she'd lingered near the corridor, catching snippets of Damian's furious orders to throw someone out. Curiosity had rooted her in place. Now, after watching him speak to Seraphina with such open contempt, the pieces were falling into place. Seraphina was not Mrs. Lopez.
But if not her, then who?
Back in the ballroom, Eva's restlessness spiked the second Damian left. She broke the kiss with Victor abruptly, her eyes darting toward the entrance, security guards were moving in their direction. Her stomach knotted. She remembered the last time Victor had been humiliated at a party because of her, the rage in his eyes, the way his fingers had twisted in her hair until her scalp burned. The ache still lingered even now.
She was not about to let history repeat itself. Without a word, she seized Victor's hand and yanked him toward the opposite side of the room, pulling him swiftly away from the incoming guards and out of the party.
To the casual onlooker, they might have looked like a couple slipping away for a little privacy after a passionate kiss.
But in reality, Victor was resisting, and Eva had no intention of letting go of his hand until they were outside the building.
"What's the meaning of this, Ana?" Victor demanded, his tone sharp but his eyes searching hers.
"I should be asking you that," she shot back, breathless but angry. "What gives you the right to kiss me like that? And in public, for that matter! Victor, I don't have that kind of relationship with you, okay? A-and I tried to do it, to resign, to leave for Singapore, even though I never wanted it, I tried to accept whatever you said, but it didn't work. It can't work. Vic, please, let me go. You can't impose yourself on someone like this. Please, give me my peace and let me go"
"Oh, so now I'm the one disturbing your peace hun? I'm the one imposing on you?" His voice rose, bitterness curling through every syllable. "After everything I've done for you? You f***ing owe your life, and your family's lives, to me, Ana! So don't you dare pick that rich idiot over me!"
Her eyes flashed. "If we're going down that road, then I could just as easily say I owe my life, and my family's, to Damian too. His codes were what made you and Dexter let us go. You need to stop this, Victor!"
"It's not the same, Ana!" he snapped, stepping closer, his breath warm with anger. "From day one, all I ever did was protect you from Dexter, and from the Lopez. You think you owe your life to him? Watch him take it when he learns who you really are. Watch Dexter skin you alive when he finds out your involvement with the Lopez. I'm warning you, Ana, don't start something that's bigger than you."
He dragged a hand through his hair, his voice breaking from rage into something more raw. "What has he given you that I can't? The only thing he's capable of is using you like a mistress! Do you know how it feels, knowing he touched you? Do you know what I want to do to him after what he's doing to my company? That man is ruthless, Ana, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Wake up! Don't let yourself be fooled by someone like him. I haven't even done anything to him yet, but he's already trying to destroy me so bad, all because of you!
"Ana, do you really think I'll just sit still and let him have his way? Do you honestly want to be the reason a war starts between me and that man? Is that what you want?"
Her silence was answer enough. His jaw tightened. "Fine. You'll have it, Ana. You'll have that war. And whatever happens, it's going to be on you."
He turned sharply and stormed off, leaving her standing on the roadside, her mind spinning. She ran a hand through her hair, heart pounding. She'd known she shouldn't have come here tonight. Every instinct had warned her. She regretted it with every bone in her body, she wished she'd just stayed home with a blanket and Netflix.
Eva didn't bother going back to the party. She climbed into her car, and her driver pulled away immediately.
From somewhere in the shadows, a voice commanded coldly:
"Follow her."
Damian was already home, sitting in the living room like a storm barely contained. The moment he'd seen that criminal's hands on Eva, his blood had boiled. He'd barked orders for the man to be thrown out, then left the party without a backward glance. Staying would have been dangerous, he wasn't sure he could have stopped himself from doing something irreversible.
His grip tightened around his phone, almost crushing it, when a call came through. He answered in a clipped tone.
"Yes."
"Ma'am Eva is being followed, sir."
"Who?" he asked, his voice sharp with irritation.
"Victor Lawson."
Damian's breath caught, then a slow, dangerous smile curved his lips. "Then let him."
He tossed the phone aside, eyes glinting. Lethim find out she's under my roof. My property. Mine. Then when he comes close again, Damian vowed, he would crush him into pieces.
Thirty minutes later, Eva returned, not because she wanted to, but because the city streets had eventually run out of room for her to escape her thoughts. She had told her driver to keep going, circling aimlessly, just to give herself time to breathe and think.