“I need to tell you something.”, he said, letting off me, way too early for y liking.

“What?”, I asked, only a little concerned. I had pushed Clary’s words to the back of my mind already, and how much worse could this day possibly get, after all.

“

Talia’s father… he wants the wedding to be rearranged.”, he said stiffly.

Okay, scratch that. This day kept getting worse for sure.

I meant to yell but suddenly my voice was hoarse and shrill. I waited for Damien to laugh. This had to be a joke, but Damien didn’t laugh, he didn’t even smile.

Instead he sighed again, sounding more tired than ever.

“He saw the pictures. And like I told you before, honor and loyalty are important to him, or at least so he says. He doesn’t appreciate the fact that his daughter got humiliated like this. To him, all that matters is that I chose you over her. And Talia can’t ever be the second choice. She is, as far as I know, the only family he has. And she always gets her way.

And now in return he wants to humiliate my family as well. He wants revenge and by making me marry Talia he would get revenge on both of us. He-”, he paused for a moment as if the next words were too hard for him to say.

“If I don’t he will publish the documents. All of them.”

I was too shocked to cry, talk, or even move.

This couldn’t be real. How could any man be so cruel?

“So- so what are you going to do?”, I finally managed bring forth, suddenly feeling very sick. Everything about my body was strung to the breaking point.

The time it took Damien to answer felt like an eternity.

“I told you that Talia always gets her way.”, he began, and I felt my heart sink. Of course, I couldn’t expect him to through away his entire career because of me. Still it felt like he had broken my heart for the second time already.

“Except this time.”, he finished, and it took me a while to realize what he had just said.

“So… You won’t?”

“No.” He sounded determined. He was a man of his word. There was no going back now, I knew that, still I hesitated.

“But this company means so much to you. And to your family as well. What about your dad?”, I asked carefully, and he shrugged exhaustedly.

“He understands. He never wanted me to marry Talia and I doubt that had changed. He is already making calls to some business partners to prevent the worst. This is one of the biggest international companies in the world. We will get through this. All the crimes have time-barred by now. We will get through this.

I told you that Talia means a lot to me, and she still does, but I can’t, and I won’t marry her. She’ll have to understand.” He sounded like he wasn’t sure whether all this was actually the truth, but it was what all of us had to believe right now.

“I am so sorry. I had no idea… If I had known… I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. It was stupid doubting you after everything.”, I started apologizing, suddenly realizing how stupid and childish I had been acting.

I had complained about being called a whore while he had been going through much worse. In two weeks most people wouldn’t even remember this article, but a marriage was for life. And he was handling it a lot better than I was.

“So, what now?”, I asked, and he pulled me into a hug. We were sitting on his couch and I had rested my head against his shoulder.

“I have two days to let him know how I decided. I will tell him on Wednesday.”

I bit my lip. “So, you might still change your mind?”, I asked, and he smirked a little.

“Maybe, Princess.”, he joked before shaking his head, serious again.

“No, but we need time to prepare. The more time we can get, the better.”

I nodded, suddenly tired from all the exhaustion. I closed my eyes and scooted closer to him. At least until I suddenly jerked up, remembering something.

“Where is Graham?”

Confused Damien looked up.

“Why?”, he asked, and I forced myself to relax. Graham would kill me if I betrayed his secret so I said, as casually as I could: “Oh, it’s nothing. I just wondered because I thought he’d be here too, because of all this drama. I thought you two were becoming closer again?”, I said, and he knitted his eyebrows.

“Yes, we are. Well, at least I thought we were. But after the phone call came in and I told him what was going on, he just disappeared. Maybe he had something better to do.”, he frowned, and I started sweating. This wasn’t good at all.

“Did you tell him how you decided?”, I asked, anxious to hear the answer to his question.

“No, why? It’s not like he cares anyways. The company never really meant anything to him.”, he answered, slightly confused.

But he did care about Talia. A feeling of unease spread through me and not even Damien’s warmth could stop it from spreading through my bones. The opposite was the case, Damien’s presence made it even worse.

Suddenly I became painfully aware of the fact again that Damien had no idea that Graham was in love with Talia.

And the reason for that was because Graham, and I too, kept lying to him.

I didn’t know Graham well, but I knew him well enough to know that he was probably about to do something really stupid.

I had excused myself to Damien and had claimed having to use the bathroom. I had sent him back to the smaller living room and had promised to follow as quickly as possible.

As soon as I was sure that Damien had left the room, I locked myself into the bathroom and pulled out my phone.

I didn’t even have time to admire the marvel bathtub or the huge shower that could have probably fitted 30 people at once.

Nervously I tucked at my dress while dialing Graham’s number. I called him 5 times but every time it went straight to voicemail, so I sent him at least 10 messages.

The first one said: Don’t do anything stupid! Damien WON’T marry her. I talked to him.

The second one said: Please don’t get yourself into trouble. Call me if you get this.

And the remaining messages were basically repetitioning of the first two messages.

All I could hope was that he would read these messages in time. Hesitantly I put my phone away and splashed some ice cold water into my face, like I had done at work, but it didn’t help to calm me this time either.

I made my way back to the living room, but my hand was still holding onto my phone inside the pocket of my dress. If Graham called, I needed to know.

When I came back to the living room, everyone seemed to be much more at ease and even Clary was laughing at a joke Jared had just told her. Damien was playing a card game with Charlie by the fireplace and Mrs Black was still sitting on the couch, silently looking at her son and grandson, smiling. I stared at them too, but it wasn’t Charlie that I was concerned about this time.

I was torn. Should I tell Damien about Graham and Talia? But it would just unnecessarily upset him. Maybe Graham was simply home, watching The Titanic and eating chocolate, like every other heartbroken young adult, just like me actually, after all my heartbreaks. It had become a routine by now.

But something told me that that wasn’t the case and with every passing minute the uneasiness increased. But what would I tell Damien?

I would have to admit that I had been lying to him for the past week. And there was nothing anybody could do. Damien himself had told me that when Graham wanted to disappear, he wouldn’t be found, unless he wanted to be found.

I got interrupted in my thoughts when my phone started vibrating.

Eager I pulled it out but instead of Graham, Celia had sent me a message.

“We are almost there. Can you let us in?”, it said, and I clenched my teeth, feeling guilty for the disappointment that had rushed through me.

I had never been disappointed to receive a message from my best friend before.

It seemed like everyone besides me seemed to have fun this evening. Mr Black, who had finally finished his calls for the evening, Clary, Jared, Celia, and Derek joined the card game, until the only people left were Mrs Black and me.

Her excuse was her bad luck with cards, as she had lost almost $2000 at a Las Vegas casino in her college years, in less than 20 minutes. Ever since that night her parents had forbidden her to ever play in a casino again, and not even the fact that they didn’t even play for money, seemed to convince her.

My excuse was a lot lamer than hers. I simply argued that I was tired.

Damien guided me to my room after Derek and Celia had left after dinner. It was odd that I was already calling it my room, as it wasn’t mine at all.

We stopped in the doorway and I turned towards Damien, but I avoided eye contact with him. Like he had down before a few times, he lightly lifted my chin up with his fingers, so that I was forced to look him into the eyes.

“You know, if you wanted me to marry Talia, you could have just said so instead of being in the doldrums all day.”, he joked but I didn’t feel like laughing, still I forced a small smile onto my lips.

“It’s not that… I am happy that you chose not to marry her. But I want you to be happy too. The night we met you said this company meant a lot to your grandfather, your dad and you. It’s your legacy, sort of. I would hate for you to throw that all away if you aren’t sure about it… Or about us.”, I said and even though it wasn’t the main thing that was bothering me, it was still a big part of it.

He grabbed me by the waist and gave me a long kiss. It was so unexpected, that it took me a few seconds to lean into the kiss. His kisses always made me forget about everything else and even today, they didn’t fail me.

Breathlessly I brushed a strand of lose hair behind my ear.

“Do you still think I am unsure?”, he asked, and I smiled little.

No, definitely not.

“And if you are worried about work, I told Michael. I will fire every single person that dares to say a wrong thing about you.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. Because Damien Black didn’t ask for other people’s permission.

Maybe that would have made me mad a few days ago, maybe even hours ago, but today I was just grateful. He was so much more than I deserved.

I pulled him down and kissed him again, this time on the cheek.

“Thank you.”

I stayed awake half the night, staring at my phone for a message from Graham. I had called him about another 100 times and by now the sound of his voicemail made me want to cry. Or scream.

Clary had lent me some shorts and shirt of hers to sleep in. I wouldn’t be going to work tomorrow. Mr Black had already called in a sick day for me. Of course, people would talk, but that was the least of my worries right now.

To distract myself, I had sent my parents some messages, asking them about their trip and if they knew when they’d be coming back yet. I missed them terribly.

It was almost 2a.m. when I finally fell asleep and only 5a.m. when I got woken up by a tear-stained Clary in the doorway.