Big News

“Adrian?” Harriett’s face instantly turned pale as she stared at her long time friend. After the incident four years ago, she completely cut all ties with Adrian as she couldn’t face him out of total embarrassment and guilt.

“Well, this isn’t the reaction I was expecting.” Adrian laughed and walked to the chair. “Aren’t you happy to see me, Harri?”

“What are you doing here, Adrian? H-how did you find me?” She sat down slowly, playing nervously with her fingers.

“Mother told me that you have returned to the company so, I decided to pay you a visit since you decided to cut me out of your life.” Adrian forced a smile, making Harriett feel even worse than she already did.

“You should have called at least, Harriett. You cutting me out like that only made it look like the accusations were true. That was a really selfish move on your part, you know.” Adrian chuckled sadly, his eyes filled with hurt as he stared at Harriett.

He had to admit, she had changed a lot and the good part was that she was no longer married to his brother.

“Adrian I… I’m sorry. I just couldn’t face you after the whole incident.” She confessed.

“Well, that’s all in the past. I didn’t come here to blame you and remind you of what happened four years ago. I just wanted to see you.” He cleared his throat and lightened his expression to make Harriett feel better.

“Oh. Well, as you can see I am-”

“Doing ten times better than when you were with my brother? Definitely!” He laughed, waving his hands around her office and then stopping to stare at her.

“I don’t know how you were a able to put up with all of that but I am happy you finally chose your happiness.” He said and Harriett nodded, not feeling so comfortable with how he was speaking about his brother.

Of course, he was right about everything but Harriett couldn’t help but get a weird feeling from the way he was speaking about his brother.

“I have decided to forget about Damien, Adrian. I’ll appreciate it if you don’t bring him up.” She chuckled awkwardly and Adrian nodded, understanding that she probably wasn’t done healing.

“Oh, I heard about your twins. You even named the boy after me. I’m really honored, Harriett.” He placed a hand on his chest and bowed playfully.

“Goodness, Adrian. It was a coincidence, believe me.” Harriett laughed.

It was indeed a coincidence and at the time the name came to her, she forgot that Damien’s brother also had the same name. But, the deed was already done and the pastor had already blessed the name so she decided to go with it.

A few minutes later, Adrian suddenly remembered the main reason why he was in Harriett’s office.

“I know that you might not want to talk about this but, why didn’t you ever try to expose the person behind those pictures. I know that you found the culprit four years ago. Why didn’t you defend yourself and tell Damien the truth then?” Adrian asked a smile crawled up Harriett’s lip.

“If he cannot figure that out himself then, he doesn’t deserve my forgiveness, ever. That should have been the first thing to do but Damien decided to divorce me first. Funny thing is, the culprit is still lurking around him and might eventually marry him one day. Well, he deserves someone like that.” Harriett answered.

Ten minutes later, Adrian left the office, giving Harriett the chance to finish up with her work and head home.

When she arrived, the first thing she noticed was that there were two boxes in the living room.

“Mom?” She called as she walked to her room when Tony suddenly came down the stairs and bumped into her.

“Woah, woah. What’s got you in a hurry?” She grabbed his arm for support as she almost slipped.

“Harriett. Thank goodness you came back.” His sentence was rushed and his tone made Harriett understand that things weren’t well.

“I need to leave for Paris now, Harriett. There’s an emergency at the hospital.” He revealed and Harriett instantly got worried.

“What’s wrong, Tony? Paris isn’t exactly a stone throw from here so wouldn’t things get worse before you arrive?” She asked but he shook his head.

“It’s not a medical emergency, Harriett. I’ll explain when I return. I promise.” He said and kissed her forehead before running out of the house with his suitcase, leaving Harriett all worried.

*

*

“Mr. Daniels, news have gotten to us that your ex-wife has returned to New York and is now managing her father’s company. What do you have to say about this? Do you think there’s a chance that you both might reunite?” The interviewer asked, completely going off track. This wasn’t in the script he was given when he agreed to the interview but he already knew who was behind it.

It just had to be his father, Thomas Daniels.

"Really, Dad?"

“Uh. Can I not reply that? I don’t think my ex-wife will be comfortable with me speaking about matters that concern her here.” He replied politely but the lady interviewer wasn’t going to back down as she was following strict orders from his father.

“Does this mean that you guys are still keeping in touch? Where does this place your girlfriend, Evelyn James then. She made a post a few days ago talking about how she was expecting an engagement soon. Is this information true?” The middle aged lady flooded Damien with questions but when he heard her mention Evelyn’s name, his jaw tightened out of anger but he was quick to replace it with a smile for the camera.

As he opened his mouth to give a reply, he suddenly paused and decided to go in a different direction.

“Yes. Evelyn and I are still taking things slow for now but, there might be an engagement soon.”