Chapter Forty three
Third person POV;
Tracy grinned widely as she strutted farther away from the gym. It was only by chance that she had caught her older brother at the gym revealing the truth behind his very sudden marriage which had left her suspicious for quite a while. This was perfect. So it was all an act? She could not wait to announce this to everyone. It was going to be epic!
She got into her room and sat cross legged on her queen sized bed while she thought about the best way to unveil their secret.
Tracy picked up her phone and rang the one person who could share her excitement over this matter.
"Hey Aleena." She said into the phone with a wide grin.
"Hey Tracy what's up?" Aleena responded casually.
"I'm good, so I'll just get to the reason why I called." Tracy went on.
"What happened?" Aleena went on knowingly. Tracy had apparently been keeping Aleena up to date on everything that concerned Damien as far as she knew.
"This one is huge. Brace yourself." Tracy said, piquing Aleena's curiousity even more.
"Tell me already." Aleena said a little impatiently.
Tracy then went on narrate how she had taken an Innocent walk to the gym because she was bored and there she spotted Damien deep in conversation with Walter, the mansion's butler. She had overheard the latter prodding the former for answers and there she had heard that Ariana and Damien had a fake marriage and it was all a show, a contract in fact.
"I knew it!" Aleena screamed and laughed heartily.
"I knew Damien would not choose anyone one over me." She sighed in relief.
"Yea yea. So what do we do now? I'm planning on exposing them at dinner tonight." Tracy said eagerly.
"No! It's too soon!" Aleena refuted quickly most probably cooking something up in her sinister mind. Tracy frowned as she thought, just what was this girl up to?
"We have to strategize properly. Please tell me you have a recording of what he said." Aleena sounded desperate at this point.
Tracy bit her lips nervously. She did not think about that at all.
"I don't."
"Shit!" Aleena cussed loudly.
"We'll have to figure someway out. Tracy you'll just have to dig deeper and when we get enough proof we'll send it to the media." She said.
Tracy nodded before recalling that Aleena could not see her.
"Yes. I'll dig much deeper. You should come soon though."
"Oh I will but not now, I'll come in the middle of the chaos and work my way into Damien's heart with ease." Aleena said while Tracy agreed that it was a solid plan.
The call soon ended with them promising to speak to each other later.
****
Aleena sat on her plush couch in her high class, well furnished penthouse apartment situated in the heart of Hollywood. She was not so far away from Damien but she hardly ever got to see him, still. He always found a way to push her aside especially because he was busy with work, always. But all that was going to change pretty soon, sooner than she expected in fact. She chuckled.
Damien was going to be hers soon, she was absolutely sure of it. She was glad that the truth did not take so much time to be revealed to her.
She could not wait to gather enough proof to feed the media with so Ariana would crawl back into whatever hole she had come from after all the humiliation she would receive.
Aleena still got annoyed whenever she thought about the subtle ways in which Ariana had humiliated her and rubbed it in her face that Damien was married to her.
"Bitch." She cussed under her breath at the thought of Damien's so called wife.
Aleena smiled to herself. Ariana would not believe her eyes when the news would spread like wildfire, how she had trapped a billionaire and made him sign a contract to marry her. She was sure that Damien would do no such thing, not at all in his right senses. She was sure he must have been cajoled into it, maybe Ariana had even cast a spell on him. She gasped, horrified at the thought. She shook her head vigorously, she was going to break that spell and with a lot of ease too she just needed enough details.
"Oh my poor baby. I'm going to save you from that bitch soon." Aleena said aloud, pouting at Damien's photo that had been her wallpaper for as long as she could remember. He was hers alone and nothing would change it.
****
Jesse was exhausted beyond anyone's imagination. He had been seated in his office, going through file after file, answering call after call and he truly was tired of it all.
This was not the life he signed up for. Working under his older brother-who disliked him by the way-was never the plan. No, he did not hold a grudge and he absolutely looked up to Damien and was proud of his success but he still felt that no matter what he did, Damien would never be impressed.
He chose working at Kingston corp against his own will just to get closer to his older brother whom he had looked up to all his life and now, he felt it was about time he followed his dreams to be a photographer but he was too terrified to speak up.
Damien had paid his tuition fees and made sure he attended one of the best schools in the country to get a degree in business administration but what he really wanted was to master the art of photography and teach people while at it.
Only his mother knew about this since everyone else seemed so busy with their lives and did not give a damn about anyone asides themselves. He truly had tried his best to give up his passion but that never happened, it had become a major part of him, he could not discard it for anything in the world yet he was still too much of a coward to speak up about it.
He loosened his tie and ruffled his blonde locks as he stared out the window of his large finely furnished office.
He checked his watch and saw that it was an hour before it was time to close for the day. He decided it was best he went home earlier than usual because he was thoroughly stressed out.
He picked up his keys after putting his desk in order. Then he shut the doors of his office before walking out of the building whilst exchanging greetings with lots of colleagues.
He got into his grey BMW x7 and started the engine. He hummed along to some hip hop tunes as he rode on the highway.
When he finally arrived at the villa, he thought it best to freshen up with a cold shower and a change of clothes into something very comfortable. Afterwards he found himself over at the pool where surprisingly he caught sight of Damien's wife.
"Hey sis in-law." He said as he took a seat next to her under the pavilion.
She gave him a beautiful smile as she replied.
"Hey Jesse. You're back early." She observed.
"Yeah I got tired."
"Yeah you look really stressed out." She pointed out and he nodded.
They got talking about stuff and he had a really good laugh while at it. Ariana turned out to be a really fun person.
"You're actually fun to talk to, I honestly thought of you as a really boring person, no offense." He confessed while she chuckled.
"I guess not a lot of people bring out my fun side. No one really gets me around here." The last statement was obviously an after thought.
"I feel the same way." He said truthfully.
"They're your family, why would you think like that?" She asked with concern lacing her tone as she spoke.
"It's a long story." He said and looked away not wanting to speak further.
"You know you can speak to me right?" She assured. He swallowed as he looked back in her direction for a few seconds.
He did not know why but somehow he found opening up to her about how he truly felt about his life, easy to do.
He spoke at length at about how things were for him while he was younger and how he had figured how passionate he was about photography, how he really wanted to quit his job and do his thing but he was terrified of how Damien would react to it.
Ariana had listened with rapt attention as he spoke and when he was done she advised him to speak up instead of wallowing in the misery of not following his dreams for the rest of his life. She was right but it was not as easy as she had stated.
It took a lot for him to dissuade her from telling Damien herself but he eventually had to promise to speak up soon. He truly had found a friend in Ariana.
