33. Chapter 33
33
Watching his brother and their girlfriend drive off, Damon smiled.
Since they met Taeja, life had never been better. Damon hadn’t seen Zain this relaxed since he came off tour. Dare he admit that his brother even looked… happy.
Damon had to admit that he was happy, too. There was never a dull moment with Taeja. He looked forward to her being the last thing he saw at nights, and the first thing he’d see when he woke up. He enjoyed her massages, and how he’d laugh at the terrible attempts at hacking in the silly rom-coms she forced him and Zain to watch.
He could really get used to this — a life of bliss and peace.
Finally, the vehicle disappeared completely, and Damon inhaled a long breath.
Wow, the breeze in Jamaica smelled different. If there were such a thing as premium air, this would be it. It wasn’t as congested as the air he inhaled on a daily in the overly populated area where he worked and lived. This was fresh. Rewarding, almost. Like finding the error in a code he’d been working on for hours.
Turning his back to the driveway, Damon headed inside the house. A familiar feminine voice lured him to the dining hall. Cassedi sat at the table by herself, staring at a phone. Damon raised a brow and looked around the empty room.
Cassedi looked at him with a small smile. “They’re gone?”
Damon nodded as he sat beside her. “Who were you talking to? ”
“Myself,” Cassedi said, chuckling. “I’m not going crazy, I promise.”
Damon laughed. “I understand. I do that a lot when my employees act like they can’t follow simple instructions.”
“I imagine it must be hard being the head of an entire department.”
“No. When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like a job.”
Cassedi smiled sadly. “That’s how I used to feel when I was a therapist. Now I have so many problems of my own, I can’t imagine helping anyone anymore.”
“Cassedi, don’t say that.”
“What? It’s true,” she said, a tired smile on her face as she looked at the phone.
Damon glanced at Taeja’s phone, and his brows furrowed. “What’s bothering you?” he asked, looking at Cassedi, whose brows pulled together.
“Oh, Damon, I don’t want to bother you,” Cassedi said, some light returning to her eyes. “Go grab the newspaper and let’s finish playing Sudoku.”
Damon shook his head. “We haven’t known each other for long, but I do care for you, Cassedi. Something’s clearly bothering you, and I think you’re hiding it from Taeja.”
Cassedi chuckled. “You’re good at reading people?”
“No, not really. But over-analyzing is a part of my job description.”
“Okay, I’ll tell you. But you can’t tell Taeja.”
“I’m not so sure about that… I don’t like keeping things from her.”
“That’s fine. I’ll tell her. Eventually. I just want to be the one to do it.”
Damon smiled. “Do you want to go outside and get some fresh air?”
“That would be nice. Thanks.” Cassedi smiled at Damon as he helped her out of the chair. She allowed him to lead her outside, and they sat on the lounge chairs by the pool. “I don’t know where to start,” Cassedi said. “So much happened back then and so much is happening right now.”
“Start wherever is easiest for you.”
“Hmm…” Cassedi trailed off. “I think where’s easiest would be when I met Jerry. He was good to me, you know? Even though I couldn’t breathe, eat, or sleep without him being there, we were good. I guess I found it charming back then. Which woman wouldn’t want to get pampered by the person they’re in a relationship with? But the older I got, it became too stifling, and when you’re used to something, it’s hard to step away from it.
“I’ve been free for the past years, and now Taeja is saying I should call him and I—” She sighed. “It sounds like he hasn’t changed. I feel like such a terrible parent because I wasn’t there when my only child was going through what I did. Especially because there’s still a part of me that really loves Jerry, you know? Like how people say your first love stays with you forever.”
Damon nodded, that familiar coldness seeping into his being. “I know what you mean.”
“That’s good. I mean, it’s not good,” she added quickly. “But it’s good that you understand what I mean. Anyway, like I was saying. I love him to the point I would always look past his controlling behavior. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of time to think, and I still find myself wondering about all the what-ifs instead of focusing on moving on.”
“Do you want to move on?”
“I have. I mean, I haven’t. No, I have. Kinda.”
“I know the feeling…”
Cassedi sighed. “Oh, Damon. It’s so easy to talk to you. You’re like the son I never had. I wish Wayne could be more like you.”
Damon chuckled. “It’s easy to talk to you, too. Taeja’s been complaining that I’m spending more time with you than her.”
Cassedi chuckled. “But she has a whole other boyfriend to keep her time. Don’t you get jealous?”
“Of my brother?” Damon asked, and Cassedi nodded. “No. Never.”
“Hmm… How was it when you and Zain spoke about your lifestyle to your parents?”
“It was surprising to them at first, but it wasn’t strange or hard to accept because Zain and I have always shared everything.”
Cassedi opened her mouth, closing it when her phone rang. She grabbed the phone, then looked at Damon with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. I have to take this.”
Damon nodded and walked a short distance away to give her some privacy. He could still hear Cassedi’s voice .
“Yes, Sister Pansy?” A pause. “No, I said I wouldn’t make it to choir practice because I am out of town with my daughter and her boyfriends… Yes, boyfriends …” Cassedi laughed dryly. “Sister Pansy, I know you didn’t just say that! Hello, please remember that your daughter is twenty-three with five kids and they all have different surnames, and I’ve never seen a ring around her finger except when she was in primary school buying plastic jewelry from Brother Bertel’s shop! Bye to you too, Pansy! Feisty.” Cassedi hissed her teeth and ended the call with a huff. Then, she called Damon back over.
Damon sat. “Are you okay?” he asked, not wanting to seem like he was eavesdropping.
“Yes,” Cassedi said with a bright smile. “Now where were we? Right. I’ve been watching everyone and trying to better understand everything, but I can’t completely wrap my head around it. I see that you two care for my baby girl and she cares for you too, but it seems so complicated to me.”
“Zain’s my twin and best friend, so everything feels natural to us. Sometimes it takes our family and friends time to adjust, but it doesn’t bother us.” Damon shrugged.
“Hm… I see. As long as you all are happy.”
“We are.” Damon grinned. “Taeja’s an amazing woman and girlfriend.”
“So, you’ve met Jerry? You and Zain?”
“Yes.”
“How’d that go?” Cassedi asked hesitantly.
Damon had flashbacks of his fist meeting Jerry’s face. Over and over and over until his knuckles were painted red. He vividly recalled Taeja’s screams for them to stop, but he didn’t because it felt too good to put the old man in his place. Even when water doused his skin and chilled him to the bone.
“It went… well,” Damon said.
Cassedi scoffed. “Nope. You took a while to answer, so you’re lying. And I know my husband. Things are never that simple with him.”
“Well, I’m not answering that because I like your company and I don’t want you to hate mine.”
Cassedi laughed. “I wouldn’t. I meant what I said about you being the son I never had. You can do no wrong in my eyes.”
“I’m still not telling you, Cassedi.”
Cassedi chuckled, looking from him to the pool. The sun was slowly setting over the community, painting the pool with an orangish hue. “Ready to go play Sudoku?”
“Yes,” Damon answered, standing. “I need to challenge my brain.”
Amused, Cassedi snorted. “Most people aren’t usually that excited to play with numbers.”
Damon shrugged. “I’m not most people.”
Cassedi hummed as they returned to their seats inside the house. She unfolded the newspaper and grabbed a pencil. “What number do you want to start with?”
A few hours later, Damon realized how time easily slipped him by. He’d ended up playing several more Sudoku games and had a rather long chat with Merissa about rebranding the webpage for her business. The party must have started an hour ago, and neither Zain nor Taeja wasn’t answering their phones.
Annoyed but most of all worried, Damon pulled up an app on his phone. It connected him back to his system at home. The app wasn’t as fancy as the programs he had on his computers, but it always got the job done when he needed it on the go.
“Their phones are still at the hotel. Why aren’t they answering?” Damon asked himself, staring at the two beeping red dots on the screen. As more unease settled inside him, he thought for a couple of seconds. “Okay, let me try this instead…”
With a few more swipes and clicks, he got access to the camera system at the hotel. People were roaming everywhere, so he ran a facial recognition software in hopes of finding his brother and their girlfriend somewhere in the rowdy crowd. After five minutes of waiting for the program to run its course, it found them.
What he saw angered him.
Taeja was on a stage, half-naked and provocatively dancing on a man.
The man wasn’t Zain.