His Maid

Chapter 18

Damien Clark

"I feel like I have seen her somewhere." Luke announced. We had come to my office once Marley had said I was in trouble, I don't want to be on the sharp end of the stick when she gets angry at something... been there done that, not nice at all.

"Who... Marley?" I bemused. I poured us both a small glass of bourbon from my stash in my cupboard and gave him one.

"Yeah, but I can't put my finger on it. Dad recognised her as well, but he was starstruck when he saw her."

"You don't think it's..." I trailed off not allowing myself to say it.

"No, she can't be. Dad never saw her so he wouldn't recognise her."

"True." I agreed. "She didn't recognise him either, must just be work getting to my head."

"How is work? Business going well, I presume." Luke fired the questions at me. I gulped down my glass of bourbon and refilled it.

"I don't know, I haven't taken any calls or gone in for two months. I didn't want to leave Marley and Rhys alone, catching up with lost time. But I did hear from Bennet that Jones signed."

"He signed? Jesus I thought he would never sign."

"It was a good deal, he sells me his business in return for thirty-five million."

"Thirty-five! Jesus you must have been feeling generous." He looked horrified, completely and utterly horrified.

"I had to be generous, he wasn't going to sign if I didn't give him a good deal. He is a hard man to bargain with."

"Yeah but thirty-five million, that must have put a dent in your bank account."

"Definitely not. You know I have no trouble with money." I smirked.

"Oh stopping bragging about it." I laughed and placed my glass down on my desk threw my legs onto the desk and leaned back into the chair.

"You have money too."

"You're right I do." He smirked. "You've done well on Marley. You're little boy is adorable."

"I love her Luke. I love her more than I have loved anyone, ever since she came to work for me when she was eighteen, I knew that she was the woman that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I just have to earn her trust and make her see how truly sorry I am for the pain she has been through since I sent her away."

"Why did you send her away?" He asked. His bourbon had been set aside and he was now mimicking me, his legs on my desk and leaned back against the back of the chair.

"I was scared, scared that I might be like my father and not show my son unconditional love. The love I wanted as a boy. Instead I was worse, I did what your father did to that woman and her child, I casted them away."

"At least you're trying to make things right. I don't even know who my sibling is, who knows I could have walked past them everyday of my life, they could work for me and know that I am their brother but they don't want to confront me. My father casted them aside and never spoke to the woman again, made her feel like a common whore and during the process he fucked up his marriage."

"I did wrong by her Luke, the things she has gone through." I shook my head, my heart bursting at the seams. "If I could turn back time and take everything back, I would. I would do it over and over again."

"Ask her to marry you." I chuckled.

"Marriage doesn't solve everything you know. The things she has gone through will never be resolved and I can't change what happened, I don't deserve her. I am unworthy of her love and kindness."

"Okay you're getting soppy on me now. You know, I cheated on Maddie."

"What?" This came as a shock, Luke and Maddie were childhood sweethearts, they grew up in the same neighbourhood, on the same street right next door to each other. Everyone hoped they would get together and when they did they practically threw them a party. "You cheated on Maddie? Why?" He shrugged.

"I don't know. Opportunity, the woman was an open book and I was attracted to her so I just took her, with her permission of course, but when I went home that night and climbed into the bed I shared with Maddie, I felt dirty. I came clean to her the next morning, we sat down, spoke about it, I apologised profoundly she just accepted it. It was as if she knew it would happen. The thing that hurt me even more was that she accused me of not loving her anymore, her exact words were, "I understand, you don't love me anymore so I will let you go because I want you to be happy. You being happy makes me happy."

"We broke up, for two weeks. Every night I drunk my sorrows away, her words would just play over and over again in my head, it was like a broken tape player. I went over to her house with the biggest bouquet I could get in such short notice, I got down on one knee and I told her how sorry I was, I asked her to marry me, I asked her to accept all of my flaws and I asked her to never let me get away with what I did so easily. She said no. I was expecting her answer with that exact response.

"You see the things you do never go away so easily, but Maddie and I got together a month after, it was supposed to be a friendly dinner, that one friendly dinner turned into three, that turned into a date, that turned into another year long relationship and now we have been together for 7 long years and we are getting married in June.

"What I am trying to say is, I will never forgive myself for what I did and neither will Maddie, but that doesn't mean you can't work through the problem that you and Marley share. Talk to her, talk to her about everything and I promise you, a massive weight will be lifted off of your chest and you will be able to start afresh and it will be like you just started to get to know each other. Nothing will ever be just in the past but you can try and make sure it doesn't follow you in your future."

"I never thought of it like that." I sighed, running a shaky hand through my hair. "You're right, I should talk to her. I need to tell her how I feel, I want a relationship with her and I want to be a family."

"Go and make things right with your girl. I'll take dad and Rhys out for the rest of the day and for the evening, have a long talk with her. I would say don't wait up but I'll have your son so you kind of have to." I stood from my chair and nodded at Luke.

"Thanks man."

"Anytime." Let's go and talk feelings with my girl.