Chapter Five
Damien paced up and down the hallway, outside the hospital room. He could not understand why he was so agitated but there was something about seeing your wife, unconscious, in a dead faint and also in another man's arms. It rattled him. Her white face and limp body had scared him as he watched the man carry her in his arms, bridal style. He stopped pacing and looked ahead, his brows coming together in a huge frown and a sour taste came into his mouth, as he stared at the man who had saved his wife. Zaire Ludovic. C.E.O of SERENE, A MultiBillion-dollar Fashion and Entertainment Company and one of the top rated fashion company in Emerald City. He was Damien's biggest Rival. The Romero family owned MAGIC, another top rated fashion and Entertainment company in the City. It had been in the family for years and was the source of all their wealth. The MAGIC group had other subsidiaries in other industries - Retail, Education, Manufacturing, Sports etc but MAGIC Touch, which embodied their Fashion and Entertainment Industry was the epitome of the MAGIC Group. The business summit at the Reign Gardens was open to all business icons and reputable people of the business world Zaire was one of them. Zaire was standing erect, neither looking sideways but facing the door of Lana's hospital room. Damien watched him with narrowed eyes. What the hell was he doing here?, he thought. True, he had brought Lana to the hospital but his job was done. He should leave, already. Damien did not like the way Zaire was standing guard over his wife's hospital room. Lana was his wife, not his, Dammit! He started walking towards him, to tell him to get the hell away from his wife's hospital room door and out of their lives, when suddenly, the door to Lana's room opened up and he stopped in midstride as Lana walked out and walked towards them. "Lana, are you okay?" He went towards her hurriedly, placing himself between her and Zaire. Lana gave him a withering look. "What's it to you? My wellbeing is none of your concern, last I remembered!" Her tone was scathing and her eyes cold as she stared up at him. Damien was taken aback by her coldness and was even more shocked at his reaction to her coldness. He felt nervous, as though something precious was about to slip from his fingers or had already slipped from his fingers. "Let's go home" he started to say but Lana ignored him. He saw the direction of her gaze and his eyes flashed with anger when he saw that she was watching Zaire. The way her expression softened as she stared at Zaire, made his blood boil. Without thinking, he grabbed her arm, and pulled her to himself "I said, Let's go home!" He hissed in her ears and Lana struggled in his grip. "Let go of me, you jerk!" She struggled and suddenly, she was free. Zaire reached out and pulled her to his side, breaking Damien's grip. "She said, let go, Romero. Why are you manhandling a lady?" Zaire's voice boomed out and Lana who was by his side could feel the vibrations from his voice. Seeing that she was not struggling in his grasp, almost made Damien go mad. He saw red and almost exploded. "That's my wife, Ludovic! Take your hands off her!" "I don't care if she's your wife. She's a lady and she does not want to be with you at the moment!" Zaire smirked at him before turning to Lana and saying softly "Let me take you." Damien could not believe his eyes, when Lana glared at him before nodding slightly. Zaire smiled and led her out of the hospital. Damien swore as his fists clenched and his face reddened as he watched Zaire lead his wife, away from him. "Damn you, Lana!" *** As soon as Lana stepped into the house, Vera stood up from the sofa where she and Rina had been sitting, and walked towards her "I thought you were going to be hospitalized for a long time but now I know you only pulled that stunt to embarrass my son!." She wagged a finger in front of Lana as she spoke. Lana merely glanced at her and started making her way up the stairs to her bedroom. "I'm talking to you!" Vera roughly pulled Lana back and glared at her "You lowlife! I allowed you to marry my son because of that old wretch and now you dare to disrespect me?!" "Don't you dare call Laura that" Lana fired back and Vera was taken aback at her sudden fierceness "Although, she did that for a good cause, I was a fool for going along with it." This was a new side to Lana that she had never seen before, and it shocked Vera. Normally, Lana stood like a coward when Vera berated her and had never raised her voice to her. Vera wondered if Lana had gone mad. "Stop acting as though you didn't manipulated her into it" Vera threw back at her, her arms crossed "I know your type , you gold digging lowlife." Lana smiled bitterly. "Well then, I'm sure it will gladden your heart to know I'm correcting the mistake Laura made" she calmly said, her eyes glittering like ice "I'm getting a divorce!" This revelation shocked both women and Rina actually stood up and walked towards Lana cautiously, a sly smile on her face. 'This was perfect' she thought 'Everything is going according to my plan.' However, Vera had her eyes narrowed at her. She scoffed and eyed Lana with disdain. "A divorce? really? So you can get half of my son's inheritance, right?!" "I don't care about his inheritance!" Lana asserted "And I don't care if you believe me or not, I'm getting that divorce!" "You're going nowhere!" A voice thundered from the entrance and they watched as Damien strode towards them. His face was red and his grey eyes were flashing with anger as he remembered how Lana had left with Zaire at the hospital "How dare you bring up divorce?! After you manipulated my grandmother into withholding my inheritance?!" Damien leaned down and spoke fiercely to Lana. Lana stared him down, unwilling to back down. "I have no idea what you're saying, and I don't care!" She yelled back at him, and he was shocked at the fire in her eyes "I won't stay under this roof with your little whore!" "Well, you got yourself into it, you conniving bitch, so deal with it!" Vera fired as she went to stand beside her son. They all stood before Lana, glaring at her. Lana was undaunted, however. She was leaving this house even if it meant she was smuggled out. She thought of Laura and her heart clenched with sorrow but she could not take this anymore. She would explain to Laura later. "Excuse me, sir" A voice interrupted the tense moment and they watched as Damien's assistant, Liam, walked up to him. "What is it?" Damien snarled, his angry eyes never leaving Lana's face but the next words that came out of his assistant's mouth, had them all staring at him in shock. "Your grandmother, sir. She's dead!"Chapter Four Hundred And Six"Damien Romero will be abandoning Lana Fernandez."Adrian reared back his head as though he had been slapped. His face was twisted in confusion at Zaire's statement."Damien Romero would abandon Lana?" He asked incredulously, "You think that's possible? The man flew over thousands of miles to rescue her when she was kidnapped and even took a bullet for her. And you tell me he's gonna be abandoning her? In what universe?""Yea, he did all that but does he remember that he did all that?" Zaire asked, tapping a finger against his jaw as if he was thinking deeply. "What?!" Adrian screeched, in more disbelief and confusion. He was about to say something more when he realized where Zaire was going.He cocked his head to the side in astonishment, "Are you saying that because he's amnesaic, he would not remember Lana and also not remember his feelings for her?""Bingo!" Zaire uttered, rubbing his hands in glee as though he was extremely happy that Adrian was fina
Chapter Four Hundred And Twenty-OneDamien swallowed at those words and his fists clenched beside him."Why would she...who was she..." he inhaled deeply, "Who was she to me?"Zaire sighed, "I did not want to tell you this while you were still recovering, but that woman is literally your bane, Damien," He uttered in a serious tone, "You need to avoid her."Damien groaned in frustration, "And why do I need to avoid her?" He asked once more, "What's the big deal about her that she's been kept a mystery? And..." he cocked his head to the side, an eyebrow arched in confusion, "Why does she look like Lana? Lana has a twin?""No," Zaire groaned in frustration, walking up to Damien again with his hands on his shoulder. This time he looked into Damien's eyes pleadingly, "Do not ever associate her with Lana. She's not Lana and she'll never be Lana Fernandez, no matter how much gimmicks she comes up with."Damien narrowed his eyes, "What are you talking about?"Zaire sighed once more, his voic
Chapter Four Hundred And TwentyDamien could not understand how he felt at that moment.But he knew that if he did not get to know who this mysterious woman was, he'd go nuts."I asked you a question," he repeated, when it seemed like Zaire was not going to be replying to his question, "Who is this woman?"In a bid to pass across how urgent this was to him, he stretched the cellphone towards Zaire, shaking it in his face vigorously.Zaire stood watching him, eyes squinted in deep thought.The muscles in his jaw twitched rapidly from growing ire. He did not like how Damien just reacted to seeing Lana's picture."What the hell is wrong with him?" he thought in annoyance, "He is not supposed to be this curious about Lana Fernandez. What if he recalls something? Dammit!"He looked at Damien once more and gritted his teeth at the amount of desperation in the latter's eyes."You cannot know who she is, Damien." He thought to himself, "I don't care if y'all have some kind of connection. I wi
Chapter Four Hundred And NineteenZaire walked up back to the door to Damien's quarters.He stood back for a few moments, trying hard to remove any traces of glee on his face.Once he opened the door, he will be performing a masterpiece for Damien. The thought that Damien will fall quicker into his trap than a person falling into a sinkhole was enough to make him giddy.But it was no use rejoicing before the deed was done, no use counting his eggs before they hatched.There was no use rejoicing over a feat that he had not yet accomplished.Until he sees that Damien was in a place where will completely listen and believe every word that drops out of his mouth, he had to put the rejoicing off till another time.So saying, he grabbed the well polished knob of the door and pushed it open. At the same time, he immediately schooled his expression to that of worry and agitation.He met Damien still in the exact position that he had left him, sitting on the leather chairs."Great," he thought
Chapter Four Hundred And Eighteen.Zaire walked out of the room, and closed the door quietly behind him.He looked back at the door, his lips lifting into a smirk. The cellphone was still ringing quite loudly and he quickly picked up the call."Sir," the voice from the other end said and Zaire nodded, even though the other person could not see him."You called right on time. " he uttered, "Good job.""Thank you sir," the other man replied, his voice taking on a gleeful note at being praised by Zaire.It was Zaire's driver and now, his assistant. After he had shattered Aryan's leg, the driver had taken it upon himself to be the personal assistant to Zaire.While the job was not all a bed of roses as he had soon discovered, it automatically earned him some respect among Zaire's men, and it made him draw closer to the boss himself.Zaire had previously told him to call at that moment, and he had actually carried out the task with utmost precision.He did not know why Zaire had told him t
Chapter Four Hundred And Sixteen"Very nice," Damien uttered, before lowering himself unto one of the comfortable leather chairs in the apartment.Zaire's face relaxed at that statement, clasping his hands in glee, "Awfully glad you like it," he said, then sighed, 'We tried to make sure everything remained the exact way you left it."He waved his hand around once more, "So..." he drawled as he walked closer to Damien, tucking both hands in his pockets, "Did anything pop up?" He made a gesture with his hands to his head, "I mean, do you remember anything?"Damien blanched, his expression tight.He did not want to talk about his amnesia or the fact that he did not remember shit, even after being in his so called former room.The room was very unfamiliar to him, and while it was fit to be the apartment for a king, he did not know what to feel about the sterile and overly expensive vibe.He cleared his throat loudly, his gaze shifting to the bookshelves by the side of the wall, “You me