Chapter 11: 11- From where it all Started (Skippable backstory)
"...You could have just celebrated it. You already know Mr. Carlos is targeting my new company, and it\'s making me busy." Amelia rubbed her forehead, looking at Damien, who had come here after leaving his birthday celebration. She didn\'t understand why he would leave such an important event to visit her when she had told him she was busy today.
"Huh, if you want, I could make him stop doing that," Damien said, seeing her tired face and dark circles. He understood that she had been working late, prompting him to move forward and place the bouquet on the desk.
He had received it from a flower shop he visits regularly to help the paralyzed woman who makes most of her sales due to his timely visits.
"No, I want to do everything alone. Don\'t think of something stupid again, Damien," Amelia sighed, looking at him as he took a seat on the other side of the desk.
She remembered how last time he had tried to help her by convincing an investor, which boosted her company\'s growth but didn\'t sit well with her desire to be self-dependent.
"I see... By the way, what happened to your hand?" Damien noticed that her left hand had a graze mark, prompting him to look at her with a furrowed brow.
"Ah, this, it\'s just some issue with my stepmother. You already know how they are," Amelia sighed, knowing that Damien also had a stepmother who didn\'t treat him well.
This was the major reason for their friendship, as they understood each other\'s pain. Slowly, Damien had developed feelings for her, which she was aware of, but her future came first.
"I will take my leave then" Damien slammed the desk before standing up and turning to leave, prompting Amelia to glance at him. She then turned her attention back to her files, letting him leave.
Three hour later, {Time: 12:57 am }
\'Wait, I forgot to wish him,\' Amelia thought. After finally finishing her work, she looked at the clock and realized the day had passed. She had forgotten to wish Damien a happy birthday, prompting her to take out her phone and type the message: "Happy Birthday." As her fingers hovered over the button to send it, another message notification came.
Ting!
\'?!\'
Amelia hastily stood up after reading the message, which read:
:: Young Miss, Master Damien and Madam are arguing ::
The weather was cloudy, and soon rain poured down.
Inside the mansion of the Crimwell family, a black car arrived, getting drenched in the heavy rain. The door swung open, revealing a woman in office attire, who quickly entered the mansion.
"Mrs. Crimwell, I had already told you not to harm her, then why?"
"You are an idiot who just moves around that bitch who doesn\'t even give you a glance—"
"Mrs. Crimwell! Mind your language! How dare you call Amelia—"
Bam!
"What are you doing here, Damien?" Amelia hastily entered the main gate of the mansion, the first image in her sight being him clenching her stepmother\'s hand, who tried to loosen his grip.
"Oh, Amelia, you arrived? Come and see how your stepmother just tried to slap—"
"Damien!" Amelia, seeing how Damien had tried to attack her stepmother, sprinted toward him.
Slap!
A sharp force landed on Damien\'s face, his head tilting from the impact. The hand that had once tried to stop the slap from Amelia\'s stepmother now rested on his face, his eyes blinking and looking at Amelia.
"Are you stupid!" Amelia couldn\'t believe the stupidity of this man who tried to attack her stepmother inside the Crimwell house, not understanding that he could be sent to jail and charged with several crimes.
Considering that the media would make headlines of this whole event because he was the sole heir of the Raphaels, Amelia was incredulous.
"A-Amelia?" Damien, feeling warmth in his cheek, yet the pain seemed to source from his heart instead of his face, prompting him to keep looking at her in confusion for a moment.
"Leave this place, this instant!" Amelia declared, gesturing toward the main door for this foolish guy who had barged in without knowing the consequences.
"I-I..." Damien, holding his cheek, kept looking at her while Amelia\'s stepmother turned and left.
Damien, with eyes betraying his pain, turned and left the hall abruptly.
\'Sigh, this idiot,\' Amelia thought, exhaling. She observed how her stepmother had left too, and now that guy had also left without this becoming much of a scene.
"Y-young miss, it was Madam who tried to slap Master Damien," a maid came forward, trembling, trying to explain the reality of the misunderstanding.
"What? Really?, I...let me talk to him," Amelia said, already feeling a headache from all the work. She first looked at the maid and then toward the door before moving toward it, rubbing her forehead.
Arriving outside, Amelia looked around and found Damien standing in the rain, staring at the gates.
\'What\'s with this new drama?\' Amelia exhaled before taking a step forward to come out from under her mansion\'s roof into the open area but was halted by his voice.
"You did not wish me yet, Amelia."
\'Huh?\' Hearing his voice, she slightly furrowed her brow but responded, "I was about to send a message but you caused a ruckus here."
"Do you remember the day I proposed to you?" Damien, getting drenched in the rain, smiled as it hid his tears. He turned toward the woman standing with folded hands.
"Yes, you told me about your mother\'s ring," Amelia replied, already trying her best to control the headache caused by overwork.
"I see, So, you forgot the sky...Leave it, Today, I am hurt, Amelia," Damien said, feeling shattered after today\'s announcement at his birthday party about his stepsister being declared the official heir.
He had come to meet Amelia to soothe his pain, but it only intensified.
"...Didn\'t you always say the one we love the most sometimes hurts us the most?" Amelia recalled his words whenever she mistakenly hurt him. She then turned toward the maid who had arrived and told her to bring pain relief pills for her headache.
"But you don\'t love me, right?" Damien tilted his head, looking at the woman who had brought him this far— he felt he had lost everything except his life.
He was declared unfit, his love was not reciprocated, and now he had nothing left except his own broken life.
For him whose value was decided only because he was sole heir of Raphaels, now he was fallen from the sky and knew how soon things will take ugly turn.
"Damien, can we talk tomorrow? My head hurts," Amelia said, turning to go back inside her mansion. She had been awake for a whole week without sleep and was overwhelmed by the stress of her work.
"N...ot even an umbrella....hahahHAHAHA," Damien laughed bitterly, seeing the mansion\'s door shut.
He lifted his gaze towards the sky, biting his lips, his eyes filled with pain as he accepted the proposal of that devil whispering in his ears since the day began.
"Take my body and do whatever you want." He declared
༺═ ═༻
, ... \' !
, , .
, - :
:
: ꪖᔰᛕꪶ
༺═ ═༻
With that screen being shown, a thick book materialized in front of Damien, who had already reached the threshold of brokenness. It wasn\'t like he had anything left in him now except dying.
And who even reads such a long contract?
"Here you go..." Damien signed.
«Thanks for selling your Soul»
DING!