Fated To Love You Forever

Two Days Later

LONDON

Madison tried and failed to stifle her groan, as she climbed out of the train, one hand lugging her bags behind her and the other supporting her waist.

To describe her situation in one word, she was simply exhausted.

She was so tired, and the two days spent on the train had felt like two years to her, especially since she had to ration the cash she had so she wouldn’t spend all of it on food.

This was also one of the reasons, why she felt like there was a huge hole was forming in her stomach.

Despite her legs hurting so much from sitting for so long, she continued the journey from the train station to outside, noting that she still had a long way to go.

She flagged down a taxi that would take her closer to the town where she lived, and praying silently that it wouldn’t cost too much, luckily for her she got a really affordable one, and after about thirty minutes of driving round the busy street, she finally arrived.

She was home at last.

The tiny house was even shabbier than Madison remembered.

The piece of wood one of her friendly neighbors had put up for her for easily walk-in and access her house had fallen in, and the swampy, soggy surroundings was only made worse with the occasional rains here and there. Now she was extremely grateful she was wearing boots.

Her heart clenched painfully, as she stared at the exterior of her tiny home.

It was in such a state of disrepair that Madison knew it was no better than those run down cheap motels, she had stayed in while she was in New York.

There was no difference at all.

The green paint from the wall, had peeled off so much that the soft wood which was already beginning to be raided by termites was peeking through.

Although she had not even opened the door yet she could already discern the musty odor emanating from the room from a distance.

“Madison?”

She swiveled around, startled to see an elderly woman who had a huge smile on her face. From the way she wiped her hands on the material of her skirt, Madison could tell that she had been washing.

“Mrs. Sterling.” Madison grinned widely. “Good to see you.”

The older woman laughed, appraising Madison, “You too! It feels like forever since you told me you were going for you last gig. I missed you so much.” She paused for a while and then continued, “How are you doing? You look great, by the way.”

Before Madison could reply, the woman had turned back in the other direction, calling out her fellow woman, “Jerry! Landon! Guess who’s here?”

Madison chuckled as the other neighbors slipped out of their houses to welcome her back.

After asking how she was and talking for a little bit, they bade her goodbye and moved back to their houses.

Madison wiped her eyes from how hard she had been laughing, and now she was only just realizing that she did miss her neighbors. She missed the people that made her every day life worth living. Her house might be a mess but she was glad for her neighbors.

They had always been nice and supportive, and Madison found no reason to feel ashamed in front of them.

She smiled once more, turning to walk back into her house when she heard a loud squeal. As she turned in surprise, she didn’t get the chance to do anything because little John, one of her neighbors son had launched himself at her.

It took her whole stamina and stoic composure not to send her sprawling to the ground as she began to laugh, taking him in her arms, “Hey, hey, hey…” She giggled, “Johnny boy, hey tiger.” She pretended to roar, blowing cold air into both his ears until he began to laugh.

Positioning him firmly at her side, she pinched his cheek, “Where’s your Mummy?”

“She’s out back.” He answered, sucking on his little finger, which Madison gently pulled out with a warning “Don’t suck on your fingers, okay?”

When he nodded, she questioned him about school and his parents, and Madison couldn’t stop herself from smiling at his detailed replies. After a few minutes of listening to him describe his first day at school and giving her feedback and encouragement the best way she could, Madison finally picked him up again, “Okay, now let’s get you back to your mother now, shall we?”

He nodded, not saying anything again and she began to make her way to their house. It wasn’t hard to find his mother as she stood in front of the door, a clothes hamper in her hand and her protruding stomach in full view.

Madison felt a tiny nudge of sadness hitting her at the sight of the pregnant woman, but she kicked the solemn thought aside.

“Claire?” She called out, smiling.

When the other woman faced Madison, she gasped, “Gracious Lord, when did you get back?”

“A few minutes ago actually.” Madison laughed, as they exchanged pleasantries, talking for a little while before Madison announced that she had to leave.

Pausing, she slipped out some cash from her purse and handed it to the little boy. To his mother she said, “For treats or anything else he might like. Just get it for him.”

The woman gasped in surprise, fixing Madison with a smile, as she said, “Wow, thank you so much. You didn’t need to do that, but nevertheless thank you so much Madison.”

“It’s okay.” Madison smiled. “I’ll see you around.” With that she spun on her heels and walked to her house.

Her legs felt like lead and it was as though all the fatigue she had felt at first, was beginning to manifest.

Quickly she unlocked her door, grabbed her bags inside, the dusty, humid air attacking her nose as she switched the lights on and popped open the only window in the room.

She sighed, dropping her bags in the small room. She had quite a lot of cleaning to do, she thought to herself, her eyes wandering as she plopped herself down on the bed, which was a very short distance from the door.

Now looking around, she saw how small this place was, and well she had initially wanted to get a more comfortable place, but this was the only place she could afford here in Birmingham.

Suddenly remembering something, she extracted her phone from her purse and dialed Alvarez’s number. He had made her promise to call him as soon as she got home safely, and although she had wanted to cut off ties with him, she knew it was decent enough to at least inform him of her arrival.

As she stared at the ceiling, waiting for Alvarez to pick up, Madison prayed to the heavens that it wouldn’t rain tonight because she still hadn’t gotten round to fixing her leaky roof.

…….

“Sir?”

Damien heard a voice float around in his head.

As he slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the curious expression on his secretary’s face, as she gently called out his name.

His head hurt as he raised his head to face her, and the urge to yell at her for waking him up suddenly surfaced but he ignored it.

No matter how tired he was, he still knew it was bad succumb to sleep while he was at work.

He had fired people for the same thing he was doing right now.

Trying not to sound as groggy and disoriented as he felt at the moment, he looked up clearing his throat as he asked, “Yes, what is it?” As he spoke he looked through the files on his large table, trying to find the one he had been working on.

“Um, I just wanted to remind you of your schedule for today. The meetings you moved to today are about three, and then you have a lunch reservation with one of the new partners at six. Would you like me to move any of them?” She asked timidly, but Damien knew she was asking with him in mind.

He was quite sure he looked as terrible as he felt, but he didn’t want to move or procrastinate his responsibilities anymore. He had already done it for two days, and not again.

“No, no.” He shook his head, “Don’t move any of my appointments. Just forward the schedule to my email as soon as you leave.” When she nodded, he waved her away, dismissing her off.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Sir?” She said again, moving closer to his desk.

Damien was confused for a second and he was about to ask her what the matter was, but he stopped himself when he saw the cup of coffee in her hand.

A small smile formed on his face as he gratefully took it from her, and said warmly, “Thank you so much, Nina.”

With one last small nod, she finally took her leave, and Damien taking a huge gulp of the coffee in his hand, he carefully placed the cup on the desk.

His head still ached terribly but he tried to concentrate on the work in front of him.

Before he had gone far with anything at all, a knock sounded on his office door and giving his assent nonchalantly, he looked up to see Mr Rudiger and Mr Paul walk in.

They nodded at him and greeted when they saw him, and Damien replied back with the same nod, a wave of tiredness beginning to hit him at the thought of the extra work this investigation would be adding to him.

He didn’t need this kind of stress at the moment.

His head was hurting still from the terrible hangover some days ago, and he had about a million things he had to do already.

He wasn’t in the right state of mind.

As Mr Rudiger opened up a file, Damien raised a hand to stop him, shaking his head. “I appreciate the work you’ve been putting into the job, I really do. But I have quite a lot of other things to focus on at the moment. I’m going to need you to stop the investigation.”

“Stop the investigation? But we’ve been making quite a lot of progress regarding the investigation. I really think we…”

“I’m very busy at the moment.” Damien cut in, rubbing his forehead, “You’ll be able to carry on with it soon. I just need some free time.”

The investigation was just quite frankly the last thing on his mind, and now he just didn’t have the time.

“But not completely, of course.” Damien added, “Just…halt the process for a week, or two. I have so much I have to do, and I need to get everything sorted out then after that, we resume, harder than ever until we’ve gotten to the bottom of it all.”

Mr Rudiger shut the file he was about to open, nodding in understanding, “Okay, sir. May we get a specific date? On when we are to resume the investigation?”

“I’ll just… I’ll give you call when I’m done taking care of business. There are a lot of meetings and appointments to keep up with at the moment.”

“Okay.” The investigator stood, motioning to the lawyer who did the same.

“By the way, here are some files.” The lawyer stated, examining the files he held in his hand and dropping them on Damien’s desk, “I think you need to look through them as well. They’re information regarding the company.” He added, when it seemed like Damien was about to dismiss it.

Damien nodded, “I’ll look through it as soon as I can.”

Rubbing his temples, Damien dismissed them.

He gulped down the rest of the coffee and looked down at his desk.

First things first, he had to clear his table and separate the files into sections.

A notification sound from his device showed him, that Nina had forwarded some details and ringing her for a second cup of coffee, he slowly began to work his way through everything on his schedule.