“Oh, someone makes chaos in my hotel,”
They turn to the owner of the voice. A man is standing there in a white casual button top along with black slack pants. Two bodyguards behind him standing so professionally.
Damian’s expression changes to stoic.
“Damian! My man!” he smiles brightly. “It has been so long we didn’t meet, right?”
The man is about to walk toward him, but when Damian shoots him a glare, he stops. He let out a chuckle, “You still the same, huh?”
“What are you doing here?” Damian questioned deadpan.
“Well, didn’t you hear what I said? My hotel. You make chaos in MY hotel,” he repeats the words.
Damian rolls his eyes. Frank, the bastard, accidentally chose this annoying guy’s hotel. Out of everyone, this man is the man that he wishes not to meet.
“I see. I will ask my man to clean this place right away,” Damian snaps his finger.
His men bowed and quickly cleaned the dead body and arranged the stuff back to its place. The man chuckles and waves his hand, “Oh please, no need to worry about it.”
“Besides, you are my best friend-”
“We’re not,” Damian says firmly.
“Okay, fine. We’re not best friends but I don’t mind it. I can ask my worker to do it. This the 10th time in the week it happened,” he chuckles.
“What 10th time?” Matthew frowns.
He nods toward the dead body, “It 10th time in the week someone’s dead in this hotel.”
Victor and Matthew exchange looks. Damian sighs and shakes his head. They didn’t know whether this was a hotel or a place where people could murder.
“Is this a hotel or what?” Matthew mumbles.
“Whoever is that is… I’m sure he did something bad toward you, right?” the man looks at Frank’s dead body who being handled by Damian’s man.
“He is,”
The man slowly nods. He looks at him, and that’s when he finally notices Damian is hugging someone. His eyes narrowed when he recognized that figure and light blonde hair.
Besides, it is such a rare sight to see Damian hugging someone. Especially a woman.
“Who is that? If you don’t mind me asking,” he points at Melody.
“What do you think?” Damian arches his eyebrows.
“Your new toy?” he guesses.
Damian sighs, “This is my wife, idiot.”
Melody, who heard it, felt something warm in her heart when Damian said that. The way he claims her as his wife and admits it gives her something… more like a butterfly. Meanwhile, the man’s eyes widen.
“Your… wife?”
“Yes. Got any problem?” Damian asks.
“Nothing is wrong. Just…” he clears his throat. “…. not what I expected. I thought you were gay.”
When he says that, Matthew bursts into laughter. Damian grumbled under his breath, but his fingers didn’t stop caressing Melody’s hair. How did this happen? He tries everything to avoid this man.
Yet, it was just like fate to meet him here.
Melody pulls her face away from his chest and looks at the man who is talking with Damian. When their eyes met, both of them were stunned.
“You…” the man mumbles.
Damian frowns to see the interaction that happened between them. Did something happen that he didn’t know?
“Young lady? It’s such a fate to meet you here again,” the man chuckles.
“Nothing is fate. It’s just an unlucky thing that happened to meet you,” Damian rolls his eyes. He looks down at Melody, “You know him?”
“I met him at the park when I sneaked out to get ice cream. I bump into him, that’s all,” Melody explains.
“Yeah, she saved me from my stressful day with her beauty and adorable face,” the man chuckles.
Hearing him say that makes Damian twitch.
“But when I saw her somehow related to you… it made me curious. Now, I finally understand. She is your wife. No wonder she is so important,” he grins.
“Is it bothering you?”
“What? No. It didn’t. I just thought to court her or something, but… she is someone else, wife. I’m not that desperate to snatch someone else wife, Dam,” the man says with amusement.
Damian just sighs deeply. Melody pulls away from him, looking between them. She didn’t know this man was someone Damian knew.
“Is he your fri-” Before she could finish her sentence, Damian beat her to it.
“No. Absolutely no. Strictly no. Never. Not even a slightest thought,” he says firmly. “I’d rather die than be friends with him. If he’s the only one that is left on this earth, I will kill myself rather than be with him, Mel.”
Melody looks at him stunned. She just needs a short answer and not a long answer. The way he answers it shows that Damian is not fond of this man. This was the first time she saw Damian in this state.
A lot of people have been with Damian, but she never sees this type of interaction. He is annoyed and frustrated, yet… he doesn’t pull out his gun or show any sign of wanting to kill him.
“I… I just… ask,” she softly says.
“Gosh, calm down, Dam,” the man grins. “Anyway, I know this is not a good time to introduce yourself, but let me introduce myself.”
“Greeting, I’m Riccardo Bolenzo. It’s such a delightful moment of meeting you, young lady,” he bowed his head with a bright smile.
“Thank… you. I’m Melody Juniver. It’s nice to meet you…” she says in a soft tone.
“Melody? What a pretty name for a beautiful woman,” Riccardo chuckles.
Damian rolls his eyes, “Stop complimenting her.”
“Aww, is little Damian is jealous?” he teases.
“I’m not,” Damian says firmly. “Anyway, since when did you change your name?”
Riccardo smiles, keeping his gaze on him, but Melody could see his gaze darken when Damian mentioned that to him.
“Since I’m born,” Riccardo says. Even a smile on his face, but his eyes didn’t lie.
“Hm…” Damian hum.
“Dam, we’re done here,” Victor informs.
The room looks clean and has no traces of what happened there. Riccardo was impressed to see their work. He claps his hand, “Your men did a great job.”
“Should I say thank you?” Damian sarcastically said.
“Geez, always grumpy,”
Riccardo rolls his eyes.
Damian grabs Melody’s wrist and drags her with him. He gestures to his man to leave now. When he walks passing Riccardo, his steps halt. They stand side by side for a moment.
He gently pushed Melody to walk first. Melody frowns in confusion, she looks at him. Before she could say something, Matthew wrapped his arms around her.
“Let’s go get ice cream!” he beams.
Victor sighs, “Mat, calm down. Melody is still overwhelmed and states,”
“Can loosened up a bit, bud?” Matthew grunts.
Riccardo is standing there with a smile. “You got a wife, huh?”
“I strictly advise you… don’t even dare to lay a finger on her,” Damian warns him.
A chuckle escaped Riccardo’s lips, “Calm down. I wouldn’t. I’m not like… him.”
“You can say that. It didn’t change the fact you are related to him,” he clenched his fist.
“Related… even I’m his flesh and blood… that didn’t mean I will do the same. Snap out of it, Dam. A friend wouldn’t do that,” Riccardo says. His tone was laced with anger.
Damian scoffs, “Yeah right. Do you think I will believe that? Even if I reach my death, I wouldn’t believe it.”
By that, he continues to walk. The door shut closed leaving Riccardo and his bodyguard. The room filled with silence. His bodyguard exchange looks, knowing how much this affects their leader.
“Boss…” one of the bodyguards speaks.
“I’m fine. It’s my fault anyway,” he sighs and smiles.
Riccardo turns to face them, “I want you both assigned a high rank of our men to keep an eye on his wife, Melody.”
“May we ask why the sudden action, boss?” his guard asks in confusion. ”
“Only this way… I can have my friend back. By protecting his precious wife. You know… if that man found out about Damian’s wife, he would find a way to destroy Damian.”
“On it, boss,”
The car door shut closed. They start to drive away from the place. Melody fiddled with her fingers and couldn’t help but glance at Damian occasionally. He focused on his tab, but she could see his mind was elsewhere.
She sighs quietly. The scene of her shooting her step-father made her hands tremble. Melody closed her eyes to try to calm herself down. It over. It’s not her fault. It… It was just an accident.
She keeps saying that mantra in her head. Yet, it didn’t change anything. Suddenly, someone pulls her. She opened her eyes, and Damian wrapped his arms around her shoulder, bringing her to his chest.
“Sleep,” he demands. His finger continues running through her hair.
“I-I’m not sleepy…” she mumbles.
“Sleep. You need it,” he demands once again, leaving no room to protest.
Melody sighed, knowing there was no use in fighting with him. She closes her eyes and snuggles on his chest. This is what she needs. His warmth, comfort, his soothing words, and his presence.
“Damian… who is that guy at the hotel just now?” she questioned, mumbling.
“He’s someone you shouldn’t care about,” he answers, firmly.
“Why? Is he…. an enemy?” she looks up at him.
Damian’s tense. She could see hatred in his eyes. This is what the gaze that he should give to that man if he’s an enemy to him.
“He is.”
But he doesn’t even give Riccardo this kind of gaze. He acts like he hates him, but Melody can sense something else in his voice. More like… anger and sad.
“If you say he is… then why you didn’t shoot him?” Melody questioned.
Her question made Damian stiff.
“You both seem like… a friend. You don’t even look at him with full hatred,” she continued.
Damian gritted his teeth. He knows his wife is good at looking at people’s emotions. Not only him. He takes a deep breath and lets it out. He has to calm not wanting to lash out the anger at her.
“Sleep, love. I will wake you up when we arrive,” he says. Instead of answering her question, he ignores it.
From there, Melody can guess something is happening between him and that Riccardo man.
“Okay…”