***Damien's residence***

"Damien, are you not going to work today?" Gracie knocked on his door. He grumpily woke up and opened the door for her.

"Don't tell me you've been sleeping all along" she scolded

"Good morning" he greeted.

Gracie nodded her head and began putting the place in order. He went into the bathroom and did his business, he came out and dressed for work. He went downstairs and met his breakfast already served, he ate and kissed her goodbye. Gracie sighed as she watched his car drive off, she missed the once jovial Damien she knew. She hoped one day she will see him smile genuinely and do away with the scary look he puts on always.

***Smiths Cooperation***

In Nora's office, Lawrence is seated with her as they planned on how to go about the deal and the profit share each company is going to gain. They concluded everything and just as Lawrence made to leave, she insisted on seeing him off.

"You stood me up last night, Mr. Lawrence," she said calmly

"I had other things to attend to. I couldn't waste my time on some mere dinner" he retorted

Nora gasped at his choice of words but quickly composed herself and put on a fake smile. When he had left, she yelled at nothing in particular just to let out the anger she has been holding in. She was expecting him to apologize for what happened and not that kind of reply. She went back into the company and ordered her secretary to bring her water. The water was brought to her and she gripped the bottle so hard that the water came out forcefully and splashed all over her. She threw the bottle away angrily, looking at her messed-up cloth

*** Dream company***

"Marissa, to my office now, "Damien said through the intercom. She rushed to his office and knocked, Damien ushered her in looking tired.

"Where is Lawrence? I haven't seen him the whole of today" he asked

"He went to the Smiths Cooperation to finalize the deal, Sir" she replied

As they were still talking Lawrence entered the office smiling like always but his expression changed the mo moment his eyes landed on Marissa. He seems not to understand what it is about her that irritates him, there's this strange aura around her.

"You can leave now," Damien said to Marissa who had been glaring at Lawrence all this while.

"Why are you two always glaring at each other?"Damien inquired

"I don't know why, I just hate her guts "Lawrence spat

"Anyway how did it go with the process today," Damien asked massaging his forehead tiredly

Lawrence started explaining to him, how he managed to make Nora accept his terms, making them have the lion's share in the profit share. Damien let out a sly smile thinking of how dumb Nora can be.

"I investigated their finances and I realized they are getting bankrupt accordingly as we planned and now they have no other option but to sell some of their shares. This is the perfect time to strike, what do you think? I want you to buy two-thirds of the shares of the company as soon as possible. I can't wait to see the downfall of that evil woman" Damien smirked devilishly

"That I'll do for sure but how did you know about all these"Lawrence asked

"I have my ways you know. I had someone plant secret cameras in her office and their meeting room, I automatically get every piece of information they talk about" Damien said, as he relaxed and swerved in his chair.

"You're one smart dude," Lawrence said

***Smiths Cooperation***

"What's happening to the finances of the company"Nora wondered as she went through the heap of documents on her table. She began panicking at how low their finances have dropped, she had given the new deal with the Dream company all her attention.

"Attention everybody, move to the meeting room now" she yelled through the intercom.

All the staff rushed to the meeting room in order not to get into trouble, judging from the manner with which she yelled they could perceive there is trouble. Sooner than later, Nora joined them and began questioning them about the reason why the company is going bankrupt, most of the blame was directed at the financial manager. They succeeded in calming here as they brought together ideas to amend the errors. Finally, they concluded by selling off some of their shares. Nora reluctantly agreed since she knew the consequence of disapproving of this idea as it was the only way out of this mess.

As soon as the meeting ended, she received a call from Lawrence which surprised her as he never calls her personally, she answered and nervously listened as she thought there was going to be another bad news

"Mrs. Smith, I got notified that you're selling off some of your shares and I want to offer you a proposal," Lawrence said coldly

"How did you get notified so soon?" she asked shockingly

"Are you in or not" he went on ignoring her question, Nora stood in her office dumbfounded

"I'll take your silence as a yes. Now here's the proposal, I want to buy two-thirds of your shares, just name your price. I'll give you time to think about it and the sooner you give me feedback the better for you" he ended the call with that, even before Nora could say anything. She slumped into her seat in her office shocked at what just happened, she took her car key along with her bag and left the company in her car to cool off her head.

***Mona's hospital***

A man is lying on a bed, staring at the white ceiling with deep regrets thinking of his mistakes in the past. A tear dropped from his left eye and he brought his weak hands to wipe it off. He always wished he could turn back the hands of time just to correct his mistakes because he hasn't been able to forgive himself ever since he realized what a grave mistake he has committed.

"Good day Sir, you have got a visitor" a nurse greeted as she came in, he nodded his head in affirmative to allow the person in as he composed himself, putting on a smile to welcome whosoever it is.

The nurse moved aside and a woman walked in, he studied the woman for a while and suddenly his facial expression changed to that of sorrow once again as he recognized his visitor.

"Please, leave us," he said in a broken voice and the nurse walked out, closing the door behind her.

"Gracie...is that... really... you?" he stuttered as tears started streaming down his face uncontrollably.

"Yes it is, Mr. Gary Smith" Gracie said, holding his extended hand towards her as she also began crying

Gracie comforted him and they exchanged pleasantries, she then explained how she met Damien after she left his house and how big Damien had made it in life. Gary began crying once again as he listened to her narrating the whole story, he suddenly wished to see his son just once and apologize to him, at least to earn his forgiveness. Gary in turn explained to Gracie how he developed a heart attack from the excess stress, pressure, and the fact that he was not hearing from his daughter, Queenster anymore. Gary reminisce on all that has happened these five years and sighs wondering where his daughter is and how she was faring. Somewhere within him, he was happy Damien had become successful in life and was proud of him. Just as Gracie had left, Nora walked in and dropped his food, she drew a chair and sat beside him.

"Eat up, I've things to attend to I can't stay here all day long," she said grumpily

"Have you ever had time for me? Have you ever asked about my well-being? You've changed a lot of late and it's becoming unbearable as it hurts me each time I see you I remember it's because of you I ruined my beautiful home. I lost my lovely family all because of you, only for you to change so bitterly. You make me regret ever knowing someone like you" Gary barked shedding tears already

"Now I'm making you have regrets. Did I force you to get married to me? No. Did I ask you to treat your family badly? No! So how the hell I'm I the cause of your fucked up life. You've already burdened me with that bankrupt company of yours and now this. You can't send me to an early grave, I'm still young you know, I don't even know why I got involved with you and your fucked up life any way I'm regretting ever meeting you too! Just die already!" she yelled and stormed out of the ward in anger.

Gary sat on the bed feeling nothing but ashamed of himself for bringing this upon himself. He remembers clearly how Pheona begged him to not go ahead with marrying Nora but he refused in the most irrational way thinking she was being an obstacle in his way.

Another person walked into Gary's ward and met him crying and cursing himself

"Don't wish for death so soon, because your punishment is yet to come"

Gary turned to face the owner of the voice and to his shock, he saw the last person he least expected to see standing by the door giving him a hot glare

The one person he's not ready to meet anytime soon, is Damien Smith, his only son.

"Damien... Damien....my son" he called shocked to the bone, he seem to be getting a lot of surprises as the day went by.

"Excuse me, have you lost your sight? Or do I look like any of your sons?"Damien said bitterly, Gary only watched his son reject him in tears

"Anyway, I just came here concerning my sister. Where is she and who is she with? I need answers to those questions."Damien said ignoring the tears he was shedding

After Gary was able to calm himself down, he narrated to him how he handed her over to Laura, Nora's supposed cousin. Damien shook his head in disbelief realizing, Gary left his daughter in the hands of a total stranger

"Which country did she take her to?" he muttered

"She was sent to the States" Gary replied feeling guilty

"City?" Damien asked, Gary gave no response as that was his grave mistake, he never knew to which city his daughter was taken to.

"I asked a question Mr. To which city exactly? "Damien yelled Ashe was gradually losing his cool

"I... I don't know"Gary blurted out in tears

Damien just stared at him blankly and left the ward before the tears which are threatening to fall could be seen by Gary.

Damien brought out his phone and put a call to someone

" I want you to find one Laura Jones, who resides in the States. Don't waste my time she has something to do with my sister's whereabouts" Damien said to his private investigator

"Sure Sir" he replied and Damien ended the call, walked out of the hospital to his car, and drove straight to his company.

Nora went home and began drinking herself into a stupor regretting her actions as she realized she stuck to Gary whatever happens. Sometimes she just wished she could just disappear and forget about all her problems.

"My life is a whole mess, I just feel like ending it all with my life" she cried throwing the bottle of wine at the wall, it crashed on the wall and broke into pieces, and she began throwing things around messing up the whole place. She cried herself to sleep, and the maids carried her to her room and cleaned the mess she had made.

The next morning, she woke up with a banging headache, surprised at how she ended up in her room. She bathed and got ready for work, she ate breakfast and took some painkillers to ease the headache. She asked the maids about how she ended up in her room and they informed her of how much she was drunk so they took her to her room, she nodded and left the house, got in her car, and sped off.

***Dream company***

Damien is in his office sipping the hot coffee in his hands when suddenly his phone began ringing

"Hello Sir" he heard as he answered recognizing the voice as that of his private investigator

"Any update, you better have something important to say?" he asked firmly

"No Sir, but I was able to get the location of the woman whose details you sent me. Since she sent your sister there, I guess she'll be the one in the best position to tell us her whereabouts and I'll take it from there" the private investigator said

Damien ended the call as a notification appeared on his laptop. He clicked on the file with shaky hands and tears made their way out of his eyes as he scrolled through the information with the hope that something good will come out of it

"Queenster, my baby sister, finally I will get to see you again," he said still shaking, unable to control the rate at which he was happy.