Time To Heal [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER TWELVE: THE REVELATION

With a sense of premonition, Devin stared broodingly at the A4 white envelope lying on his office's desk, recently being delivered by a peon from Forrester Modeling Agency. After three weeks of total silence, not even a word from her had been heard, he was facing a new challenge with apprehension, not wanting to know the content of the file.

More than once, he'd been sorely tempted to call her under the pretext of informing about the status of her new mission. She'd been so adamant, so determined the last time they'd spoken that he felt like she was literally throwing him out of her life. What sane woman wouldn't? What woman would want to deal with a monster like him for more than strictly necessary?

Had she succeeded in her quest? Had she acquired the properties he would have given his life to possess only one month ago? Was that her final memorandum that she was sending him? A white envelope clearing his dues, with the subtle message to get the hell out of her life? It sounded pretty final. If ever that was the truth, there would be no reason at all for him to contact her, no hope that they might cross each other's path one day.

Thus his reluctance to open the envelope.

Deep down inside, he knew that twenty-eight days sufficed to make a legal transfer of properties from one person to another, so much that he was certain of the content inside. The problem wasn't that he doubted her, no not at all. What bothered him was the fact that he felt nothing savvying that he'd finally achieved his objective. Nothing! Zilch! Nada! Where was the sense of triumph and pleasure in having bested his enemy, the victorious glory of having won by his own superiority?

Although he'd not been expecting superlative happiness, he'd assumed that he would have at least a sense of gratification which was conspicuously missing leaving him with a greater void. One which seemed even more unsurmountable than the one he'd lived in his entire life. He couldn't even summon the image of his mother as he'd done so many times over the years to keep the bitterness burning inside him. With a fatigued sigh, he flung aside the envelope like it was something venomous, and frowned when fifteen minutes later, he found himself unable to concentrate, eyes flickering in the direction of the offensive file.

With another long suffering sigh, he opened his office drawers, preparing to shut off the envelope when his attention was grabbed by a display of photos splashed in a disarray, a surprising fact since he was usually so organized. With insight, he remembered that Alvin had handed over some compromising pictures of Ana when he'd investigated her. It had seemed such a good idea at that time, now as he removed them and spread them on the table he realized that they seemed to say nothing about the real Ana.

The one who'd disintegrated in his arms like a delicate flower, and who had been reborn in her womanhood, as splendid as a new phoenix. Eyes closed, he tried to wipe the image of her naked, eyes hooded with uncontrolled passion, her long fiery hair in wild abandon, bestowing him with a look so unbridled with want that he felt himself growing hard instantly. That was enough to make his eyes open in a jerk to land on a front-page magazine.

Frowning, he sifted through the pile to remove the depiction which heralded that something was amiss. The headline read "Anastasia Forrester succeeds yet again to grab attention at the Dominez party last night". His frowned deepened, his eyes reacting instinctively to double-check the date. It had been the day he'd sought Ana out.

Enthralled despite himself, he flipped through the pages the headlines were referring to, and finally reached the blatant picture of Ana wearing a moss green dress, so tight and so short that her ass was in vulgar display. Scowling, he tried to rummage through his brain but he could never remember her wearing such a scanty dress in real life. Even the yellow dress she'd worn to dazzle him had definitely been more modest that the one so overtly displayed in front of him. Besides, he was pretty sure she had not attended the Dominez party that night, he'd left after eleven, and by the look of it, Ana had had no intention of joining the party.