Chapter 48 Flawed Intentions
Damien Thorne sat in the corner booth like a man ready to disappear from the dim-lighted bar at the slightest inconvenience.
Even the low music playing felt like torture to him, blending with the murmur of quiet conversations and the occasional burst of laughter from intoxicated patrons.
A half-empty glass of whiskey rested in his hand, the amber liquid catching the light as he tilted it slowly, watching it move as though the answers he sought might be hidden inside its depths. His brows were furrowed, his jaw tight, and his eyes distant in a way that made it clear his body was present, but his mind was somewhere else entirely.
A woman sat on his lap, beautiful in the artificial way money could manufacture beauty. Her black dress was tight, her perfume sweet and heavy, her fingers trailing lazily through his beard as she leaned against his chest.
Damien did not react. He did not acknowledge her either. She was simply there, existing in his space without meaning anything.
Across from him, Tyler, his best friend, watched the entire scene with poorly concealed amusement.
Tyler leaned back against the leather seat, his arm resting across the backrest as he studied his friend with narrowed eyes and a crooked smile.
He snorted.
“You know,” Tyler began, lifting his own glass and taking a slow sip, “I have known you long enough to recognize when something is eating you alive.”
Damien did not look at him.
His attention remained on the drink in his hand.
Tyler continued anyway.
“And I think I know what that is about. But I’m confused.” he said bluntly. “You do not obsess, nor lose sleep over women. What’s the matter?”
He gestured lazily toward the call girl sitting on Damien’s lap. “This is your usual speed.”
The woman smiled faintly at the unintended insult, too used to detached arrangement to take offense.
Tyler leaned forward slightly, his voice lowering.
“So explain to me why this Seraphina has you looking like this.”
That got Damien’s attention.
His grip on the glass tightened, his knuckles paling slightly as tension crept into his hand.
Tyler did not miss it.
He smirked.
“Don’t be funny. She was mine, and you know she is now getting married to my twin. Not just with him. They are getting married.”
Tyler let the words sink in before he spoke again, “You lost. Accept it. We don’t always have to win.” Tyler had just gotten to know about Seraphina recently. Damien had kept the relationship a secret while he and Sera were still together.
Damien suddenly burst into laughter, like disbelief wrapped in quiet rage.
“Over my dead body,” He said calmly.
The certainty and seriousness m in his voice made Tyler’s smirk fade.
Damien finally looked up, and there was dangerous hint behind his eyes.
“That wedding will never happen.”
Tyler stared at him. “You are so obsessed with this girl that you will stop her from wedding your brother? Okay. And how exactly do you plan on stopping it?”
Damien leaned back into the booth, his fingers tightening around the woman’s waist absentmindedly as his mind turned over thoughts he had not yet spoken aloud.
“Something is wrong,” He said slowly.
Tyler raised a brow in question, already feeling like he had a huge role to play because whenever Damien was in worry, so was he. Damien helped his life at a young age, and he’s been loyal to him since then. Maybe he would have been dead if not for Damien.
He watched as his bestfriend’s jaw flexed..
“She barely just discovered that I cheated on her,” Damien said. His eyes darkened.
“So how did she go from that to engaging Julian this quickly?”
Tyler only listened. Damien continued, his voice quieter now, as if his situation was getting realer as he talked about it.
“It does not make sense unless…”
He stopped.
Tyler leaned forward.
“Unless what?”
“Unless something had already been happening between them before she found out about my betrayal.”
The words left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Tyler exhaled slowly.
“Well,” he admitted, “In the truthful sense of it, that is fishy.”
He tilted his head slightly.
“But you are only assuming.”
Damien said nothing.
Tyler’s gaze sharpened as he added,
“You know what I think? I think you should stop sitting here drowning in your ego and actually talk to your brother.”
Damien’s eyes flickered as Tyler leaned forward further.
“You and Julian have always had a complicated relationship, but he is still your twin. If something is happening behind your back, confront him like a man instead of sulking and letting yourself mourn a woman who isn’t dead.”
Damien swallowed. Tyler had no idea how heavy and intense the enmity between him and Julian was. He had no idea what really had transpired, or that Julian wasn’t someone he could easily try to get words from his mouth.
Julian was like a puzzle that could never be solved. And it was why he hated him right from their teen years. Julian was the favored one- the one everyone liked better- composed, strategic, overly intelligent, even more handsome. And now- he had Seraphina, the true heiress of the Moreau dynasty. No. She should be his.
Julian couldn’t have it all. No, he couldn’t. He had even managed to build such lucrative tech company even after an exile that was meant to break him. He could never like Julian. He always made him question his worth. Julian had to leave, maybe permanently.
At the thought of that, his throat tightened, knowing he was reasoning the worst, but he couldn’t help it. His twin brother was a threat to his own existence.
He hated that Tyler had a point though.
Beacuse either ways, he had to speak with Julian. Whatever answer he got from him would amount to something in the end- even if the conversation ended with a few blows, and blood drops here and there. They weren’t new to blood in the Thorne family.
He thought about the will too.
What if Julian had shown Seraphina the will?
What would she think?
The thought made his stomach twist at the same time his phone buzzed on the table.
The sound cut sharply through his spiraling thoughts.
He glanced at the screen— Talia.
His expression shifted instantly.
He hesitated then stood.
The call girl slid off his lap without protest, already sensing the shift in his attention.
Damien moved away from the booth, toward a quieter corner of the bar before answering.
“Yeah?”
Her voice came through the phone immediately, tight with panic.
“I cannot find it.”
Damien frowned.
“Find what?”
“The real will my father created before his death,” she whispered urgently. “It is not in my room anymore. It was kept in my wardrobe.”
His spine stiffened.
“Oh…you had the real will all along?” He feigned obliviousness.
“Yes. And I’m asking because I know you took it.” She snapped quietly. Damien’s grip tightened around the phone.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You were the only one that had been in my room since a couple of weeks now, apart from my mum of course.” she said accusingly.
“I did not take it,” Damien replied firmly, his lie almost believable.
Talia’s breathing was now uneven. “You do not understand,” she said. “Nobody must see that will. Nobody.”
Her voice dropped further.
“If I had known, I would have torn it apart long ago.”
Damien closed his eyes briefly.
“Calm down. You might have packed it with your work files by mistake. Check when you get to your office.”
Silence lingered. Then she exhaled.
“…Okay.”
“Don’t panic, okay?”
“Damien, can you…come check on me? I need company.” Damien’s jaw clenched. “I’m busy, Talia. I will call you later.”
The call ended.
Damien lowered the phone slowly.
Rage burned slowly in his chest.
He returned to the booth. Tyler looked up as he approached. The call girl was still seating.
“What happened?” Tyler asked.
Damien grabbed his jacket.
“I have somewhere to be.”
Tyler frowned.
“Where?”
Damien’s eyes were cold now. But before he could say anything, he eyed the call girl on the seat, accessing her sexy frame sharply. “I think I can do with a blowjob first. I need to relieve some steam.”
Tyler smirked. “Now, that sound like the Damien I know.” The girl didn’t need order. Her smile was sultry as she followed Damien to the elevator.
Damien needed to calm his nerves before driving to see his twin brother.