Second Chase At Stake

Damien grabbed his blazer from the bed and put it on. His eyes caught the file on the bedside table and for the twentieth time since he woke up, he had been ignoring it.

Again, he took his eyes away and turned around to face the mirror. He had on a black shirt under the blazer matched with black, bogus trousers.

He stared at himself in the mirror, frustration in his eyes as he sighed. Briefly, he shut his eyes to control himself. For a moment, he felt hurt but he forced a smile on his face to hide it.

Raising his hand, he read the time on the wristwatch. He was ten minutes late for work already. But despite that, there was not an ounce of giddiness to get to work.

The past week has been hell for the young Damien. Some work-related but most of it from his dear wife. He spun around and was about to pick up his bag when he instead picked up the file on the bedside drawer.

This was a week since this file was given to him to sign. It was heartbreaking when his wife of four years chose to hand him divorce papers to sign.

He had questioned her decision. They had no issue. They had been happily married for four years without issues. His parents had disowned him because he chose her.

Rebecca and Damien met at college. The love he had for her was uncontrollable. He wanted her and he did not want anyone apart from her. Not long into their brief relationship, they got married.

Even though Damien smiled and acted as though all was well, he knew what he lost to be with Rebecca. He was disowned and all his inheritance as the first son of Alfredo's family was ripped away from him.

The Alfredo family were the wealthiest in the city. They dealt in oil and gas in addition to automobiles. Not only did they deal with it but they had a very strong hold on it.

Their net worth could sustain them till the twentieth generation of the family but Damien was ready to let that go. All he had to do to sustain that was to get married to Joana Simpson the daughter of the president.

He had never met her but he disliked the idea of getting married to her. All Damien wanted was Rebecca. Her charms and soft manner of speech took him in and he was not ready to leave.

Without his family and their consent, he got married to the only woman in his heart. He did not tell her about his background because that did not matter anymore. He had lost it all so there was no point.

He ended up working as a designer at R****h Align, a fashion company. Damien was not one of the best in the company. In fact, the only thing that got him the job was the fact that he could draw. Outside that, he had no skills to be a designer.

Due to that, he was poor. It did not matter to Rebecca or her family so it was all good. Not until recently when out of the blue Rebecca's mother and brother began acting strange.

It was strange because not once had they done that to him before. They loved him just as much as they loved Rebecca. They were even the ones to request that they stay in the family home rather than scouting for a house.

Damien then thought in his heart that he indeed did not make a bad decision marrying Rebecca to the detriment of losing his inheritance.

Well, that thought changed when his in-laws began comparing him to the rich men out there. They would berate him and call him all manner of names.

One time they compared him to the CEO of R****h Align, Alex Lin. He was a young man in his late twenties. Handsome even and the owner of numerous businesses and landed properties. All this without a family name.

Alex after college got into the business and quickly rose to fame. Damian's in-laws knew how well to make him feel bad each time they got in contact with each other.

It went on for a month and he got wind that Rebecca was about to be promoted to the managerial position. What was surprising was she never told him about this. He refused to overthink and just spoke to her which she affirmed and handed him divorce papers to sign.

At first, he felt it was a dream. Maybe, it was right? But it was not. His loving wife handed him divorce papers and was not remorseful about it.

“Sign it and hand it to mum," she said and walked away that day

From that very moment, they no longer slept together. Rebecca was hardly ever home additionally.

Damien tossed the file back on the bedside table after cross-checking if the name on it was right for the hundredth time. He grabbed his bag and rushed out of the room and the house. His reason was mostly to avoid his in-laws who were always ready for a fight even at midnight.

He waved down a cab and got in. “Where to?" the driver asked

“Mall" he said and the car moved away from the apartment building

The drive to the mall took seven minutes. He got down paid the driver and went in. He went to the flower section and looked around.

The price tags for real flowers were over the roof and it was even fake ones were expensive. He could not afford a bouquet so he went for a single rose flower, a hard-written card he had written the previous and went to the office.

He was going to win her back. He thought.

With a smile, he got into the elevator to the top floor and walked down the hall. There were only a few offices at the place; the CEOs and admins of the company.

Rebecca was moved to one of the offices on the top floor, two weeks ago. Damien stopped in his tracks when strange noises caught his ears the moment he was about to walk past Alex's office.

It would have been better if he was not able to see what he saw next. The little hope he had left flew through the window with a bang.