Chapter Ninety seven

Damien's POV;

I downed another glass of whiskey. It burned my throat bringing tears that stung at my eyeballs.

I felt miserable, utterly useless, despicable in fact. I had pulled the last straw and Ariana had finally left me.

I couldn't count the number of times I thought it was a dream or a prank but each time I looked around my eeriely quiet bedroom, it painfully dawned on me that my wife was gone.

As usual, my coping mechanism was to drown myself in work and not think about anything or anyone else.

I had called and called and called. She did not pick up. She never did.

I threw a fit the day I came home and saw that a lot more of her stuff were missing from the closet we shared and when I asked, I was informed that she had come to take more of her stuff and no one cared to let me know about it.

I yelled at my mom who confessed that she was aware of Ariana's visit before hand and had promised to not let me know about it. Everyone in the house bore a brunt of my anger that day.

Once again I had shut everyone out and Aleena's efforts to get through to me by playing wife were pointless. She wasn't Ariana, she would never be.

I missed her. It had been a few weeks and I couldn't think straight. I tried tracking her with the rings but she obviously wasn't wearing them and since she did not take her car with her, I had absolutely no idea where she was.

My heart, my head, everything ached. Every little thing hurt.

"Damien?!" I heard Amy exclaim as she saw how distraught I looked when she walked into my bedroom.

"What's the meaning of this?! Get up!" She tried pulling me up but I wouldn't budge.

"Let me be, Amelia." I grunted.

"You can't keep wallowing in self pity, Damien. You're just worsening things for yourself."

"What would you have me do?! My wife left me! I haven't seen her beautiful face, heard her sweet voice. Amy, I haven't smelt her lavender scent, I haven't kissed her senseless, I-" I said in a drunken haze.

"Okay! Too much information mister!" She said, blocking her ears with her two index fingers.

"Sorry I forgot you're still single." I smirked and she smacked my arm in reaction to her obvious embarrassment.

"I'm your older sister young man, show some respect!"

"You're older by just two minutes." I stated with an eye roll.

"Doesn't change the fact that I came into this world before you." She retorted.

"Yeah, whatever." I chuckled and brought my glass to my lips but she took it away from me.

"Damien stop it already. This whole place reeks of alcohol." She scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"Go take a shower and get some sleep. We'll talk after you've gotten a refreshing nap." She shoved me into the bathroom with all her might.

I complied because she was indeed right, I needed a shower and a nap so I could feel rejuvenated.

I came out of the bathroom and saw that she had put the bar in order, shut the sliding door that led to the terrace and dimmed the lights in the room so I could sleep. I smiled.

Those were things Ariana usually did especially when I got stressed out and was struggling with nightmares. My smile dropped again.

"I miss you babe." I said to the enlarged wedding photo hanging on the wall. She looked so beautiful that day and even more so as thdy days after that went by. This woman had stolen my heart without knowing how deep my feelings for her ran.

What's worse is that this isn't even my fault. This one time, I wasn't at fault. I never intentionally cheated on her. My mind was still clogged up over whatever happened in London months ago. Everyone who knew about this, thought I was crazy to not remember getting down with a woman but the truth was that I did not remember a single thing. It bothered me more and more with each passing day.

I tucked myself under the covers, feeling a headache coming on.

I dozed off soon and found myself dreaming about Ariana being tucked next to me. I clung on to her for dear life, not wanting to let her go.

"Damien squeezing the life out of me and the baby." I heard a female voice say amid a giggle.

I frowned in my sleep. That high pitched voice wasn't Ariana's and, baby?

I opened my eyes and my scowl deepened.

"Aleena, what the fuck are you doing here?!" I growled sitting up to stare at her.

"What sort of question is that? I'm obviously in my man's bedroom." She sounded like she was just talking about the weather.

This woman was grating on my nerves.

"I am not your man." I gritted out in warning.

"Damien's what wrong with you? Ariana has left you already. Isn't that enough reason for you to realize that we're meant to be? We're about to have a family." She was kneeling on the bed and holding my face.

She tried turning my face to hers so she could press her lips on mine. I pulled away shoving her aside.

"I'm going to say this again Aleena. There's never going to be 'us'." I said emphatically, sat her aside and got out of the bedroom.

"Damien!" She came after me.

I groaned. What did this woman want from me?

"Damien!"

"What?! What is it?!" I yelled and she flinched, taking a step backwards.

"Leave me the hell alone! I want nothing to do with you, just have the child and leave me alone!"

My voice echoed in the hallway as I yelled and soon Amy came out.

"Damien what's going on?" She asked, darting her eyes between me and the teary eyed Aleena.

"Tell this woman to stay away from me before I do something silly." I said, pointing at Aleena before walking out on both of them.

I couldn't stay in the house, I needed to cool of but considering what happened the last time I went to a bar, I decided it was best that I went over to Aiden's place.

I drove out in my Ferrari feeling the need for speed. I got to Aiden's building that wasn't so far from mine since he had just bought a new house to suit the little family he was about to have. His bachelor pad wasn't suitable for my unborn nephew/niece, I let him know that and without question he went about getting a one storey six bedroom duplex with a medium size premises, a poolside, an indoor gym, theatre room and large play room for the baby. It was pretty impressive.

I drove into the premises after being cleared by security.

I walked up and rang the doorbell. In no distant time, Aiden opened the door.

"Hey man." He said shaking my hand and giving me a bro hug. He looked surprised to see me.

"I wasn't expecting you." He said looking surprised.

I nodded.

"Yeah, I know. Are you busy?" I asked, not wanting to disturb anyone

"Not really. Come on in." He stepped aside.

I went in and heard him shut the door behind me.

I stood in the middle of the living room.

"Do you need an invitation to sit?" He sarcastically asked with a chuckle.

"Oh shut up." I muttered as I sat on the large bright green couch.

"Where's Tracy?" I asked looking around the color filled place.

"She's asleep."

I nodded.

"There's so much color, it's burning my eyes." I groaned.

"Tracy did the decorations, didn't she?"

Aiden sighed, looking like he was holding back exaggerated tears of pain.

"Yes! Someone help me." He exclaimed dramatically.

"It's going to be worse when the baby finally comes." He sulked like a child.

"I feel your pain man. Pregnant women are a handful." I sighed totally understanding what he was going through.

"Aleena's getting on your nerves again?"

"When is she not?" I said in annoyance.

"Have you heard anything from Ariana?"

Just hearing her name brought an ache deep in my chest.

"No, she's not picking up my calls neither is she replying any of my messages. And I still don't have any idea where she is at the moment." I said as my face contorted into a displeased and worried frown.

I held my head in my hands as stared down at my sneaker clad feet almost like my gaze could burn holes in them.

"You couldn't track her with the rings?"

I shook my head.

"She's not wearing them. I can't track unless her skin is in contact with the tracking device in the rings. And since she refused to take the car with her, it's practically hopeless." I explained.

"What about her father's place in New York?" He asked further.

"I had someone check for me. Since the time we left, there has been no sign of life in that house."

"Does she have any relatives you know about?"

"Her father mentioned an uncle and aunt but they're in Spain and Ariana doesn't know them because he cut off all ties with them after her mother's death several years ago."

Harold and I had lots of deep conversations behind Ariana's back. The man kept a lot from his daughter in order to protect her interests. But now, I needed to find her but where would I start from?

My phone rang just then. It was my Private investigator. I picked up hurriedly, hoping he had some news about Ariana.

"Boss."

"Do you have any news?"

"Yes sir."

"Well go on." I said, feeling my patience go thin.

"She was in LA for a while after she left you and she was living with a friend."

A friend? Ariana didn't have any friends that I knew of other than her colleague in the office.

"Is it Stephanie?" I asked.

"No boss. It's someone famous."

"Who is it?" I inquired hastily.

"Brianna Ellen."

"Good job." I hung up and grabbed my keys.