NOVEL NEXT Chapter 64: You Won't Be as Lucky
Damien's Office
Steven sat on a chair with his hands still tied with the necktie while Markus stood on his right, keeping guard on him. He did not dare to open his mouth when raging Katherine threatened to break his face if he does.
Damien pulled her to the side to try and talk to her. "Okay, what the hell is going on?"
Katherine was fuming with anger as she glared at Steven a few meters away who refused to meet her stare.
Stepping to the side to block her view, Damien placed a finger under her chin to make her look at him and raised a brow.
"Sorry, Boss…" Katherine crossed her arms and looked down. Her adrenaline wore off and she was now feeling clammy.
"Why don't you tell me what happened? Who is this guy and why did you chase him like a maniac?"
Biting her bottom lip, she breathed in deeply and started, "He was a friend and he stole my money!" She peeked around Damien to glare at Steven who flinched at her words.
Placing a hand on her shoulder, he probed, "He stole from you? How?"
She clenched her teeth and spat, "Well, he BORROWED from me after LYING to me and I was STUPID enough to believe it. And before I knew it, he ran off and I never heard from him again!"
"I'm sorry, Kath... I didn't mean to use my mother as an excuse–"
"Shut up! I trusted you, Steven. How could you do that to me? Did you know that I got kicked out of my apartment because I couldn't pay my bills anymore after you screwed me over?" Katherine bit out. She was so frustrated when she recalled how hard it was for her to eat during those times. She swore that she was never going to trust anyone regarding money anymore.
"How much did he owe you?" Damien questioned.
"One grand," Katherine replied in a flat voice.
"A thousand dollars?" Even Damien was surprised. He glanced at Steven whose head hung low. "You trusted him with that much money?"
"At first, it was only half of it but after learning that it was for his mother's hospital bills, I couldn't refuse him. He also promised he was going to pay me back the week after that but he was gone. It turned out he owed a loan shark a lot of money."
After listening to her explanation, Damien already understood what was going on. He studied her expression and saw a lot on her face, she looked pissed but he thought that she felt betrayed and hurt more than anything else.
"A thousand dollars may not be much for you, Boss… But it was already a lot for me. It took me a long time to be able to save that much for something and trusting this bastard was my mistake." She sighed and was almost teary-eyed but she didn't dare cry in front of Damien.
Nodding, Damien signaled to Markus. They talked for only a minute before he came back to Katherine's side and guided her out of his office.
"Wait… What are you doing? W-Where are we going? I'm not done with him yet!" Katherine tried to plant her foot on the floor but Damien urged for her to go out. "Come on, let's go."
"B-but–"
"You need to calm down. Let's go."
…
An hour later at the Royal Penthouse
Katherine was sulking on the sofa, hugging a square pillow on her lap. She buried her face on it and refused to look at Damien. What happened on the streets just dawned on her and she was suddenly feeling embarrassed that he saw her in that state. He probably thought she was a nutcase by now.
Damien was out in the balcony and was on his phone for the past ten minutes before he came back inside.
"Check your account. The money he owed you has already been deposited." He sauntered towards the sofa and sat next to her.
Katherine raised her head and looked at him. "What did you say?"
"He paid you already. He doesn't owe you anything anymore."
Katherine was in awe upon hearing what he just said. She quickly grabbed her phone to check her account and saw that there was $1000 credited to it. For the first time, she felt like a thorn that was stuck in her back for a while had been finally removed. She breathed a sigh of relief and placed her phone to her chest as she closed her eyes.
Seeing her like this, Damien felt bad and relieved at the same time. The amount of money that was nothing to him was worth so much for this woman and all of a sudden, he wanted to embrace her but he held himself back after remembering what he did to her earlier that day. He had already kissed her without her permission and without even realizing that he did it until later.
If he hugged her at that moment, who knows what else his body was going to do if he didn't control himself?
…
Outside of Crown Resort Group
"Thank you! Thank you very much!" Steven repeatedly bowed in front of Markus Lee who had a stoic expression on his face.
"Please extend my gratitude towards President Park. I promise I will do better in my life this time. I won't do the same mistakes again," he added.
Markus stared at him and in a low voice, he said, "You better not forget about this day and about what happened. If you ever cross the President and Ms. Miller, you won't be as lucky as you are today."
"I won't! I promise I won't! Please be reassured that I will repay his kindness. And…" Steven glanced at Markus before he continued, "If… If you can… Please give this to Katherine," he swallowed as he handed a small piece of folded paper.
Receiving the paper, Markus put it away and nodded.
With that, Steven left the premises feeling both relieved and guilty. Instead of owing Katherine, now he owed the Chairman of Crown Resort Group. He didn't know if it was a good thing or not as he just escaped Katherine's wrath but what about Damien's? With this in mind, he swore he qwas never going to do anything stupid to compromise that.