He stood abruptly.
"I will have my lawyer draft the papers to dissolve the contract after I’m done helping you establish your company here. For the ti being, you can stay in this house. But once the contract is annulled, you will move out. Your fee will be paid in full."
Every sentence was precise. Final.
When he finished speaking, he picked up his laptop, sliding his glasses back on as though nothing monuntal had just shattered between them.
"Is there no chance for us?" Lena asked softly, her voice barely audible.
He paused.
"You should have thought about that before you decided to fall in love. We had a good thing going, kitten." He stepped closer and tilted her chin upward, forcing her to et his gaze. "But you decided to ruin it."
His touch was gentle, but his words were ruthless.
"Take care of yourself."
And just like that, he gathered his things and walked out of the house, leaving Lena seated at the dining table, alone, heartbroken, and painfully aware that contracts were easier to sign than feelings were to control.
"Raymond, you need to go back ho. You have been out here for a while now," Damon said for the upteenth ti.
He had rushed here when Raymond called him over earlier. From the mont he arrived, he had tried to get so information out of him, at least a reason why he was brooding like this.
Raymond’s face was marked with a permanent scowl, his jaw clenched so tightly it looked like it might crack. His hand held a bottle of alcohol in a crushing grip, while his bloodshot eyes stared blankly ahead.
At first, Damon had been shocked to see him like that.
Raymond was not soone who lost control easily, especially not in public. So Damon decided to be patient, thinking that sooner or later
Raymond would open up and tell him what the problem was.
But Raymond did not say a word.
When he wasn’t forthcoming with anything to explain what had happened, Damon tried to force the truth out of him. Even that didn’t work.
Raymond remained silent, extrely silent, only chugging the drink into his mouth, bottle after bottle, as if the alcohol alone could silence whatever storm was raging inside him.
Damon tried everything he could think of. He tried reasoning with him, tried joking with him, and even tried coaxing him in a softer tone, but nothing worked. Raymond sat there like a stone statue, drinking as if tomorrow did not exist.
At the beginning, when Damon first arrived, he thought it might be sothing simple, maybe a business issue, or a minor misunderstanding.
But as ti passed, he realized it was not that simple at all.
A strange feeling of dread slowly crept into Damon’s mind. Raymond was drinking far more than he ever had before, and Damon feared the worst. He wondered if Raymond was having so kind of emotional lapse, sothing serious enough to push him into this state.
Trying to recall everything that had happened recently, Damon thought back to just yesterday.
Raymond and Lena had been all lovey-dovey, acting as if they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Damon could have sworn they would not even leave their bed for days after what he had witnessed yesterday. If anything, they looked like a couple whose relationship had only grown stronger.
Which was exactly why Raymond’s behavior now made absolutely no sense.
Then, like a sudden realization after exhausting every other option, Damon rembered Lena.
In his mind, if he could not get Raymond to stop drinking, then maybe Lena could.
Without wasting another second, he picked up his phone and called her, quickly informing her about the situation. As he spoke, he could hear the hesitation in Lena’s voice. There was obvious reluctance there, but Damon couldn’t quite understand why.
To him, it was probably because he had told her Raymond had drunk himself into a stupor. No woman wanted to see her boyfriend, let alone her husband, in that kind of state.
So he thought her hesitation was understandable.
After all, she had even said sothing like, "I’m probably the last person he would want to see right now in his condition."
Or maybe Damon had simply heard what he wanted to hear instead of what she actually ant.
Still, after giving her the address, he relaxed and leaned back in his seat, feeling rather proud of himself. In his mind, the situation had already been handled.
If only he had known what would co out of the help he had tried to render, he would never have made that call in the first place.
Not long after, Lena arrived.
She hurried toward the VIP section and pushed the door open. Her eyes instinctively scanned the environnt as she stepped inside, trying to adjust to the dim lighting that filled the room.
Then she finally saw the person she had co for.
Their eyes locked imdiately.
The mont Raymond recognized her, she saw the anger burning inside his eyes. It was so intense that a cold chill ran down her spine. A voice inside her head kept telling her to turn around and leave before things got worse.
But her feet seed to have a mind of their own.
They carried her forward step by step, drawing her closer to the fla that threatened to consu her completely.
How could she not gravitate toward him?
Her heart had always reacted this way whenever she saw him, flipping, leaping, and sorsaulting uncontrollably as if it belonged entirely to him.
When she finally got close enough, she opened her mouth to speak.
But Raymond beat her to it.
Raymond, whose temper had flared the mont he set eyes on her, could no longer hold back his words.
"Are you that desperate that you would do anything?"
His words flew out like molten lava.
Lena stood there for a mont, stunned by the sudden hostility. Still, she tried to respond as softly as she could, keeping her voice calm and even. She did her best not to let his harsh words affect
her.
"I got a call from Damon saying you were drunk and needed soone to take you ho."
At that mont, Damon still did not fully understand the hidden aning behind their exchange, but he knew sothing was clearly wrong.
His eyes darted between the two of them. The triumphant smile that had been on his face earlier slowly disappeared, replaced with growing anxiety.
"Why?" Raymond asked coldly.
"You’re not my girlfriend, and you’re not my wife," he continued, glaring straight into her eyes. "So why are you here?"
Lena inhaled slowly, trying to steady her emotions.
"Like I said, I’m here because Damon called ." She gestured toward Damon standing at the side of the room. "You can ask him if you want."
Raymond scoffed.
"That doesn’t change the fact that you could have said no. You and I have nothing going on between us. So why did you co if not for desperation?"
Lena was already exhausted by the pointless back and forth.
She scoffed loudly.
"Maybe I shouldn’t have co. Yes, maybe I’m desperate," she said with clear exasperation, throwing her hands up above her head dramatically.
"But is it desperation when all I want is to make sure you’re okay?"
Her voice trembled slightly, though she tried to hide it.
"Or maybe I’m just here to pay back a debt," she continued. "Or maybe I’m here because soone once begged to always be there for you."
She paused briefly.
"Or maybe I’m here because of my own selfish reasons."
She lifted her eyes to look directly at him.
"But does it even matter?"
For a mont, their gazes locked, and the rest of the room seed to fade away into nothingness.
It was as if they could see straight into each other’s souls.
"The most important thing," she said quietly, "is that I’m here, Raymond. And that’s all that matters."
Raymond stared at her for a long mont.
For a brief second, the hardness in his eyes seed to soften.
But then sothing darker took over him again.
Abruptly, he tore his gaze away from her and reached for the last glass of alcohol on the table. He drank it in one gulp, the burning liquid sliding down his throat as if he wanted the fire to erase whatever emotions had montarily surfaced.
The heat cleared his mind, and whatever little softness remained inside him.
Slowly, he turned back to look at her again.
This ti, his eyes were completely empty.
Devoid of any emotion.
"Please leave, Miss Smith. Like I said this morning, our contract has co to an end because you failed to keep your own side of the agreent. Therefore, I will be terminating the contract."
Raymond’s voice was calm, almost indifferent, as if the decision ant nothing to him.
"I will still fulfill my obligations to you and honor the contract to the fullest, including the fifteen percent of your company’s stock that is still in my hands."
His eyes remained cold as they rested on her.
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