Chapter 4

Damien’s POV

I wrapped my hand around the body of the woman who was going to be my wife in just a matter of hours. Tonight was our last day as single peeps and it made me so excited, knowing that she would be all mine soon. My body tinged with joy as I could finally see everything, I had worked for falling in place. Soon, I was going to achieve my greatest dream and have the time of my life, thanks to Anita Brandon.

However, looking deep into her eyes, I felt something was off. For the past few days, it has been as if something has been eating deep within her and making her uncomfortable. She looked like she was going to say something to me, but she said nothing.

“I better get going now. The girls would be waiting for me,” she said and flashed me a smile.

The smile didn’t reach her eyes, but I didn’t bother to ask her why. Planning a wedding could be very stressful and it was probably all the stress that was making her look so tired. That had to be it.

“Hey, make sure you take good care of yourself. Go to the spa, have a massage, and have a great time. You don’t have to worry about a thing as I don’t want you looking so tired.” I kissed her on the forehead.

“No problem,” she replied and stepped out of the room without a glance back at me.

Something was wrong with Anita and it seemed it was only growing worse with each day. We had to talk, but somehow, this wasn’t the best time. She wasn’t ready to talk and I wasn’t going to force her. After the wedding probably.

The moment I walked down to the hotel’s bar, I found my best friends drinking and laughing at something.

“Hey, boys,” I taunted as I neared them.

“The man of the moment himself.” Dennis, my best friend and business partner, hugged me, his breath smelling of alcohol.

“Oh shit, for how long have you guys been drinking?” I queried, raising a brow at the both of them.

“Just long enough to put us in the mood and get us excited about celebrating your last night as a bachelor,” Jason, my other good friend who also doubled as my lawyer, said.

I rolled my eyes at them and got into a brotherly hug with Jason, perceiving the same smell of alcohol on his breath.

“Alright, enough of all of this, boys, we have a party to attend, and Damien, you are the man of the moment. Guess what?” Dennis said, his speech a bit slurry.

“What?” I asked.

“We have got a surprise for you,” they chorused uniformly.

And with that, they blindfolded me and led me out of the bar.

***

Anita’s POV

All the girls who were here for my bridal shower were so excited and were having the time of their lives. I couldn’t blame them, but then, I just wasn’t getting the contagious happy energy that was in the air. Since that night that Damien had mentioned his ex’s name while sleeping, I couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong.

“Hey, are you okay?” Stella asked as I just scrolled through the profile of the woman whom the blogs had peddled as Damien’s ex.

She was beautiful and a model and if I was a bit less conservative, maybe I was just going to look like her. Something about the similarity in our looks bothered me and I hated to think that Damien had been intentional about this.

I turned to my sister and let out a tired breath. Looking at her and seeing how much she cared about me warmed my heart and I didn’t want to hide my worries from her. Somehow, I have been meaning to talk to someone about my fears, but I can’t explain the cold feet I get whenever I think of talking to Damien about his love for his ex-girlfriend.

“Stella, to be honest, I am a bit worried,” I confessed to her.

She looked at me and cocked her head. I let out a breath and handed my phone to my sister. She went through the profile and stared back at me with a question on her face.

“Okay, so what about her?” Stella asked, giving me an awkward glare.

“She is Damien’s ex, Stella.”

“So what if she is his ex? Damien has decided to get married to you and you are one hell of a lucky girl. You need to start seeing just how lucky you are.”

“I know that I am lucky, Stella, but I can’t help but feel that Damien is using me as a replacement for her. I think he is still in love with her,” I let out my greatest fear.

My sister stared at me and burst out into a loud fist of laughter. The girls who were in the room were staring at us and I didn’t like it. I hated being the center of attention and my sister knew that.

“Sorry about that.” My sister finally subsidized her laughter and stared at me with tender love in her eyes. “Oh, Anita, you are such a sweet girl that sometimes your innocence is so cute. Look, I understand your fear and it is valid, but I want to ask you something. Have you spoken to Damien about this?”

I allowed my eyes to drop to the ground as I shook my head in the negative.

“Anita, this man is about to be your husband and you both would be swearing to spend the rest of your life with each other. You can’t go into marriage with him feeling this insecure towards him. You need to talk to him about what you feel and I am certain that you are only imagining things.”

I stared at my sister and I knew that she was right. If I wanted this marriage to start well, then I had to ignore whatever fear I was feeling and talk to Damien about this and this was exactly what I was going to do.