Chapter 047

AMELIA

The party was finally over. The guests were gone. The house had been tidied up, thanks to the servers hired for the event, but I still could not get the sight of Damian's annoyed expression out of my head when he registered that he had walked into a surprise birthday party.

Anton was right. Damian actually did hate surprise parties, but after a while, he accepted the party with good grace. However, I had noticed that whenever no one had been close enough to engage him in conversation, he tended to stay by himself at the back of the room, sipping a drink and looking like he wished he were somewhere else. Anton had not allowed him to brood.

I put away the unused bottles of wine in the fridge and searched for Damian. I found him nibbling on a piece of his birthday cake and scowling as though remembering something unpleasant. He didn’t look particularly excited, but he didn’t look like he would bite either.

"Hey, birthday boy," I said, lowering myself onto the sofa bes