Designing Emma (Volume 2)

by Clarissa Carlyle

  “He’s gone, I’m not sure where. We had this massive fight.”

  “What about?”

  Emma looked forlornly into her cup. “You remember when my dad called me just after the investors meeting?”

  “Yeah.” Damion nodded with recollection.

  “He needed me to come home. He’d been beaten up pretty badly.”

  “Emma, that’s awful.” Damion reached out and cupped a hand over her knee.

  “He owes money to some really dangerous guys. Mafia guys. And they said they’d come and finish him off unless he accepted this bizarre deal they wanted.”

  “What was the deal?”

  Emma paused.

  “They would disregard his debt and leave him alone indefinitely if I agreed to marry the boss’s son, some guy called Nick.”

  Damion was stoic as he listened to the details, running them over in his mind.

  “As crazy as it sounds, I agreed to it. I just wanted to save my dad.”

  “No, I understand,” Damion said softly.

  “Well, Daniel didn’t. He hit the roof. He called the suggestion archaic and said I was crazy to even consider it. I’ve never seen him so angry. He took off last night, but I figured he’d have cooled off by today.”

  “Daniel has always been hotheaded.”

  “But he didn’t cool off. I went to see him at the office, to make amends and tell him that I’d changed my mind, but...” Emma began to cry.

  “Why does this mob guy want his son to marry you?” Damion delivered the question with care, squeezing her knee. “It does seem kind of crazy.”

  “They want... access to my... name.” Emma sniffed. “They want to be Delacourts.”

  Damion nodded with grim realization. It did make sense. The Delacourt name alone could open an obscene amount of doors for someone.

  “So where is Daniel?”

  “He’s gone,” Emma wailed. “Gone, just took off! And that Janet was there, all smug. She told me he’d left for England to take some job opportunity there. His office was all packed up, and he’d just left a picture of the three of us, like a symbol of how he’s leaving us behind.”

  Damion’s jaw locked. Daniel had always been a loose cannon, but this latest behavior seemed unforgivably excessive.

  “She was so happy telling me he’d gone.” Emma wiped at her eyes and shuddered. “Has he slept with her?”

  Usually Damion wouldn’t divulge such information. There was an unspoken code of honor between male friends. But Daniel had already obliterated that code when he started sneaking around with Emma, so Damion took some delight in exposing the truth about Janet.

  “Yeah,” he admitted. “A couple of times after work in his office.”

  Emma sobbed.

  “I’ve been such a fool.” She was becoming hysterical. “How could he leave me like this?”

  Damion took her in his arms and let her release the despair building up within her. Tears soaked his designer sweater, and he didn’t care, he just wanted to hold her until the sadness passed.

  “He’s gone,” she repeated forlornly. “He’s really gone.”

  Damion continued to hold her as she wept. As angry as he was about her relationship with Daniel, he knew that she needed him now more than ever. He found it hard to accept that Daniel had just taken off and left the country. It seemed extreme even for him.

  “What about the company?” Emma asked. “Is he just going to leave us when we need him?”

  Damion’s nostrils flared with anger. If Daniel had truly fled, then he’d not just left Emma, but he’d left him too. They were supposed to be best friends, and friends didn’t treat each other like that.

  “I’m scared,” Emma whispered as her sobs began to subside. “I’m scared for my father. I’m scared for the company.”

  Damion silently listened. He too felt scared but wouldn’t let it show. He’d heard stories of men who got in trouble with the mob, and none of them ended well. He wasn’t sure Emma could handle losing another parent. Her father was falling apart, but he was all she had left, and his presence was enough to keep Emma together, to keep her fighting for a better future.

  “I just don’t know what to do.” Emma gripped Damion tightly, pulling him against her. He smelled of apples and oak. The smell was familiar and comforting to her. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner about Daniel and me,” she whispered.

  Damion gently kissed her on the forehead. “Don’t worry about it,” he said soothingly. “It’s not an issue anymore anyway.”

  “Can we just sit here awhile?” Emma asked.

  “Of course.” Damion held her as a contented smile pulled upon his lips.

  OUTSIDE, THE DAY SLIPPED away and night replaced it. Still Emma leaned against Damion. She could hear the steady rise and fall of his breath within his chest. She kept thinking that at any moment Daniel might call to apologize, but she heard nothing from him. Soon her eyes grew heavy. The stress of the day finally had taken its toll on her.

  Emma dropped into a dreamless sleep as Damion remained loyally by her side.

  WHEN EMMA AWOKE, SHE was in her bedroom, in her bed beneath the covers, but still wearing her clothes. For a brief panicked moment, she wondered how on earth she had got there. Then slowly, fragments of the day before began to filter back to her.

  Beyond the window, the sky was turning a light gray as a new day prepared to dawn. Emma sighed. The pain about Daniel’s sudden departure returned with renewed force, crashing against her chest and almost inhibiting her ability to breathe.

  Where was her phone? Perhaps he had called during the night.

  Emma frantically scrambled around on her bed until she located her cell phone. She turned it on with the swipe of a finger and felt her spirits plummet even further when she saw that she had no missed calls or new messages.

  Damion. Her thoughts turned to the man she assumed had placed her in bed. The man who had sat by her side while she wept over the departure of their mutual friend.

  Pulling herself out of bed, Emma caught a glimpse of her reflection in her full-length mirror nestled in the far corner of her room and groaned. She looked extremely disheveled. Her hair jutted out madly at right angles around her head. Her clothes were crumpled, and dark lines of mascara had trickled down her cheeks. She looked how she felt, like a train wreck.

  Waving a dismissive hand, she decided she’d deal with her shambolic appearance later. She headed out of her bedroom and commenced looking for Damion.

  It didn’t take her long to find him. He was standing in the kitchen drinking a fresh cup of coffee. The air in the room smelled of eggs and bread. It had been a long time since Emma had entered her kitchen with such pleasant aromas greeting her.

  “Morning, sleeping beauty.” He grinned when he saw her. “Like some coffee?”

  “I don’t know about sleeping beauty.” Emma pulled back a wobbly stool from the countertop and carefully sat down on it. “I’m more like a sleeping monster.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Damion said as he poured her a coffee, making it just how she liked, with two sugars and a splash of milk.

  “Thanks.” She gratefully accepted the drink from him. Even though she’d managed to sleep, she still felt groggy and drained.

  Taking a long sip, she was eager to let the caffeine work its magic and help her feel more alert.

  “You haven’t heard from Daniel, have you?” she asked when she’d finished drinking.

  The smile on Damion’s face quickly fell. “Didn’t take you long to bring him up,” he noted coldly.

  “I just want to know how he is.” Emma declared defensively. “I mean, I’m worried about him, aren’t you?”

  Damion sighed and sat down beside her. “I called him,” he admitted.

  “You did? Did he answer?” Emma felt her pulse begin to quicken. What had Daniel said? When would he be back? Were they even still together?

  “Yeah, he answered.” Damion nodded.

  “Well, what did he sa
y?” Emma demanded urgently. “Did he say where he is, when he’ll be back?”

  “He won’t be back.” Damion dropped the bombshell.

  “What?” Emma’s shoulders slumped in dismay.

  “He’s taken some prestigious job over in London. He said he has no intention of returning in the near future, and that he’s looking to make a life for himself there.”

  “That’s...” Emma felt fresh, hot tears dampen her cheeks. “That’s impossible. What about me?”

  “He didn’t mention you,” Damion stated. “At least not you as a couple. He was vague about everything. He said he just felt like he needed a fresh start, a new challenge, and at the end he asked me to look after you.”

  “That’s it?” Emma’s cheeks reddened with rage “To look after me? What am I to him, a pet dog he can leave behind in someone else’s care?”

  “I’m just the messenger.” Damion raised his hands.

  “How could he just leave like this?” Emma gazed into her mug, hoping some answer might be lurking beneath the dark liquid it contained.

  “He’s impulsive,” Damion said, placing an arm around her. “He always has been. It’s what draws people to him, but it’s also what sends them away.”

  Emma couldn’t believe it. Her beloved Daniel was gone, potentially never to return. All because she’d considered marrying another man in order to save her father’s life. But if she didn’t go through with it, if she could save her father another way, then he’d come back to her, wouldn’t he?

  “I don’t know how he could do this,” she admitted. She lifted her arms to swipe at her tears. “I mean, what do we do now?”

  “What do you mean?” Hope sprang into Damion’s eyes as he delivered the question.

  “I mean, what happens with Delacourt Designs? We were on the brink of starting our new business, and he just bails on us.”

  Emma felt oddly comforted by the fact that it wasn’t just her Daniel had abandoned, he’d also let down Damion.

  “He didn’t mention the company.” Damion sighed. “I’ll ask him about it, but I get the feeling he just wants to sever all ties with home.”

  “But the company was supposed to be our big break, a chance for us to all make something of ourselves on our own terms.”

  “And it will be,” Damion told her with certainty. “Just because we’ve lost Daniel, it doesn’t mean we have to lose Delacourt Designs too. We can build the company on our own, just the two of us.”

  “You really think so?” Color rushed to Emma’s cheeks as she allowed herself to feel hopeful again.

  “I know so,” Damion confirmed, edging closer to her. “All along the problem was that Daniel didn’t need the company in the same way we did. He’s already successful in his own field, and he doesn’t know the burden of existing in someone else’s shadow. He overshadows those around him. But now we can focus and build the company ourselves.”

  “Mmm.” Emma sighed sadly as she had to imagine not pressing ahead with Delacourt Designs as a trio. For so long it had been a dream shared by all three of them. It almost felt wrong to continue in Daniel’s absence.

  “Did it surprise you? Him leaving?” she asked. To her, it had come right out of left field. She wondered if she was seeing Daniel through rose-colored glasses. Had she been looking at him that way all along? If he was having sex with co-workers in his office, he wasn’t the man she’d imagined him to be.

  “Like I said, he’s impulsive,” Damion replied. “Especially when it comes to women. I suppose you never saw that side of him, but he was very much a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy.”

  This revelation locked Emma’s heart in a vice and pinched it to the point where she thought she might pass out from pain. Had she really been just another conquest for the infamous Daniel Richmond? How could he not have thought more of her than that? What about all the years they’d known one another? Had he just been waiting for an opportunity to bail on her, and the marriage to Nick was the perfect excuse to leave?

  “Em, don’t be down,” Damion urged. He began to run his hand up and down her back, trying to alleviate her stress.

  “I thought we had something special,” she admitted, her voice catching in her throat.

  “If that was the case, then why did he keep it a secret? Why wasn’t he telling anyone? If it was me and you were mine, I’d be shouting it from the rooftops. I’d be the happiest man in the world.”

  “He said he didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Emma explained, ignoring Damion’s thinly veiled declaration of his feelings for her.

  “I wouldn’t have been uncomfortable, I’d have been happy for you guys, and he’d have known that.”

  Emma was so unbearably confused. It felt like everything she’d known about Daniel had been a lie.

  “You’ll stand by me?” She faced Damion, her eyes sparkling with tears. “You’ll help me make Delacourt Designs a reality?”

  “Of course I will.” Damion clenched his arm around her, holding her tightly as they sat in her neglected kitchen, a relic of happier times.

  “Because I want this company to succeed,” she said with determination. More than anything, she wanted to prove to Daniel that both she and the company could survive without him.

  “And it will,” Damion promised. “We’ve got the go-ahead from the investors, which was all we needed.”

  “Yeah.” Emma nodded.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m worried about my dad,” she admitted. “I don’t want to marry this guy Nick, but I don’t want my dad to die. We need to save him, Damion.”

  “We will; we’ll think of something.”

  “I’d do anything to save my dad, but I can’t marry this Nick. I just can’t.”

  “It won’t bring him back,” Damion warned, sensing her intentions. “When Daniel has made up his mind, that’s it.”

  “I know,” Emma lied. Secretly she clung to the hope that if she didn’t marry Nick, Daniel might still return to her, and they could rekindle their love. As much as she knew she should hate him for what he had done, a greater part of her was still very much in love with him.

  “I’m just saying don’t endanger your father’s life for Daniel’s benefit. It won’t be worth it.”

  “No, I’m doing it for me,” Emma replied. “I shouldn’t have to be forced into marrying someone. There has to be another way to resolve things.”

  “Okay.” Damion nodded. “Whatever you need, I’m here.”

  “Right now I need a shower,” Emma stated, glancing down at her messy appearance. She turned and smiled shyly at Damion. “Thank you for being here. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”

  Damion blushed. “Where else would I be?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe London for, like, forever,” Emma joked, though pain burnt behind her eyes.

  “It’s his loss, Ems,” Damion told her.

  “I know, but we were always a trio. Now suddenly we’re a duo, it feels strange.”

  “Why don’t you go shower, freshen up, and then we can discuss sorting things out with your dad?”

  Emma nodded. She felt her despair melting away and a renewed sense of purpose rising to the surface of her mind. Delacourt Designs would succeed; she’d make sure of it. And her father would be saved without her hand having to be given away in some sham marriage. Everything would come good. And then Daniel would return, full of remorse, and she could be with him once more, and their time apart would make their union all the sweeter.

  But what about her father? Emma glanced in the direction of his bedroom, where he was probably sleeping off yet another night of heavy drinking. She doubted he would welcome the news of her decision not to wed Nick.

  SEBASTIAN DELACOURT was tired, tired of constantly trying to fill the bottomless void within him. Wearily he opened his eyes and ran a hand down his haggard face. The room around him was dark, the light outside kept out by the drawn drapes.

  Turning his head, he glanced at
the digital clock by his bedside. It told him that it was half past four in the afternoon. He’d slept all through the day. He sighed and rolled back onto his back, wishing he could sleep away the rest of his life. When he slept, he forgot the pain that haunted his waking moments.

  A sharp tap echoed from his bedroom door, and he sat up. A previous tap had awoken him.

  “Come in,” he said gruffly, clearing the build-up of phlegm in his throat, an unpleasant by-product of smoking too much.

  The door to his bedroom creaked, and Emma came in. She squinted into the darkness before flicking on the main light switch. Harsh, artificial light flooded the space, causing Sebastian to shield his eyes and wince.

  “Dad, its half past four,” she stated with disdain. “Please tell me you haven’t been in bed all day. You’re a mess.”

  He shrugged nonchalantly in response. He was always a mess these days.

  The wounds inflicted upon him by angry fists were especially sore when he first woke up. He looked to his bedside table, rummaging around in the numerous boxes scattered atop it in search of his painkillers.

  “Dad, I need to talk to you.”

  Sebastian ignored her and continued to search for much-needed pain relief; his head was already pounding, making it difficult for him to think clearly.

  “Dad.” Emma stood at the foot of the bed, glaring at him, her hands placed upon her hips.

  “What is it, Ems?” He finally found his box of ibuprofen and hungrily threw two into his mouth.

  “I need to talk to you,” she repeated, softer this time. Carefully she sat down on the edge of the bed, stifling a cough as she came in proximity of the putrid-smelling duvet.

  “What about?” The fog in Sebastian’s mind lifted a bit, but the pain in his head persisted even against the pain medication. He knew that what he really needed was some liquor.

  Emma rolled her eyes in a movement so swift he almost missed it. “About what we talked about, Dad, about the marriage offer. What else would I want to talk to you about?”

  “Look, Ems.” He leaned forward as he spoke. “I really appreciate you doing this for me. You’re saving me, you know that, don’t you?”