During the day, Damien was consumed by work, rushing from one meeting to the next. The buzz of good news from Sterling Technology regarding the new AI security software, a joint development with the Wellington Company, was a minor distraction. He went to the lab to check the progress and found Sam there. He offered a greeting, but Sam, his face passive, barely returned it.
"Sam, can we have a word?" Damien asked.
Sam followed him to an empty meeting room.
"Please have a seat."
"If it's about this new technology, I've already been informed by the team," Sam said, cutting to the chase.
"Actually, this is about personal matters."
"I don't think we have any personal matters to discuss," Sam replied.
"I know you dislike me, but..."
Sam stopped him mid-sentence. "Listen to me, Damien, to be completely honest with you, I don't even dislike you, I just couldn't care less about you. But I must admit, I respect you for your hard work and all your business achievements, but I don't want you to be getting too close and comfortable with the Wellington family. Thomas Wellington is not a good man. Also, I don't like the way you treat my sister, and I don't like that you're engaged to her while keeping another woman by your side."
Damien tried to stop him, but Sam continued... "My relationship with Thomas was never a loving one, but Penelope, I have always been and always will be protective of her. She is my younger sister, and it's my duty as a brother to tell you that as long as I'm alive, I won't let anyone hurt her."
This was the first time Sam had spoken to him with such raw honesty. All these years in the same social circles, and they'd barely exchanged a few words, but today...
"How do you know about her?" Damien asked, referring to Sarah.
Sam: "Sarah Walker. What is her place in your life, Damien?"
"Sarah... She is not another woman I'm keeping," Damien said firmly. "She's the woman I love."
Sam now finally understood Damien's feelings for Sarah. It landed like a punch in the gut, and he understood very well why Damien felt that way. "Break off the engagement with my sister then."
"I have already told Penelope that if the marriage must happen, it will only be a marriage on paper. As for breaking the engagement, I can't do it because of my grandfather's health, but if you can persuade the Wellingtons to break the engagement instead..."
Sam interrupted him again. "Are you asking for my help?"
Damien: "Yes."
"What makes you think I would help you?"
"You don't want me to be a part of your family, isn't that enough of a reason itself?"
Sam just smiled at his answer and said, "You don't understand, do you? The reason why I don't want you to ally with the Wellingtons is because of your own good."
Damien: "My own good? What are you talking about?"
Sam: "You'll find out eventually."
Damien: "I will give you that land you've been eyeing for months if you agree to help me."
Sam: "Do you think I care about the land? Damien Sterling, I am nothing like you. I will never calculate my options and play with people's feelings. Especially the feelings of an amnesiac woman."
Damien: "How did you find out about Sarah?"
Sam: "You're forgetting who's the main shareholder in that hospital you were frequently visiting."
Damien, frightened for Sarah's well-being, spoke sharply, "Leave Sarah out of this, Sam. Don't you dare come close to her."
Sam: "Don't worry, I am not like you and your grandfather... I, out of all the people, would never harm her."
Sam smiled sarcastically and walked away, leaving Damien feeling defeated. Damien was left wondering what Sam meant by that last cryptic sentence. It suggested a deeper, possibly protective, connection to Sarah or her past, hinting that Sam might know more about her circumstances than he let on. Damien worried and grew curious about Sarah's connection to Sam. Maybe they've crossed paths in the hospital? Maybe he approached her on purpose... Damien couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing.
Sam, on the other hand, now had confirmation of Sarah's and Damien's relationship. He also confirmed Damien didn't want anything to do with Penelope but was being forced by his grandfather to marry her. If Penelope were some girl from a poor family, Don Sterling wouldn't even bother to say hello to her, but since she's a wealthy heiress, he wants Damien to marry her. But what made Don Sterling and Thomas Wellington so determined to form this alliance using Damien and Penelope? Sam thought... Damien and I don't get along... But having him close to Thomas would do more harm than good... He's asking for my help, but if I help him, he might end up marrying Sarah, and I don't want that until I confirm that Sarah is actually my little Bella.
Damien went to another meeting with his assistant, Jones, and representatives from the Holland family, discussing a potential collaboration. He hadn't seen Sarah since the incident at Sterling Designs yesterday and was slightly restless. He felt like that initial closeness between them was slowly fading, and he blamed himself for it.
Sarah's Hidden Past
Marco called him to let him know he had found more clues about Sarah's past. He had discovered that Janice Moore was actually a member of the Rossi family. Damien wasn't all that surprised. "What else?" he asked.
"She was born to someone in the Rossi family; her name wasn't Janice Moore but Julia Rossi," Marco said. "She changed her name before her marriage to William Walker. I assume she did that so no one could find her. They eloped together, and the Rossis disowned her after that. After she divorced William Walker, she never went back into the Rossi family, and they never looked for her. They've placed her remains in their family's tomb. The person who looks after her gravestones is actually an old housekeeper from the Rossi family. He told me that himself. He said after the tragedy in the family, the remaining members returned to a small town in Italy, where the family is originally from. He also said the family will be returning to the country in a few months, and if I have some questions, it would be best to ask them directly. He can't reveal any secrets, but he warned me they don't like nosy and prying eyes. They haven't been seen in public for over 20 years."
Damien's mind raced. "So, Janice Moore, actually Julia Rossi, was previously married to William Walker, who loved her but divorced her and married another woman—the woman he had no romantic relationship with. It was a cover for what? So he could safely adopt a little orphan girl, Bella, and give her a new name, Sarah Walker, in order to protect her. But protect her from what? What is Sarah's identity? She had a member of the powerful Rossi family protecting her to the point that she died for her, and William Walker, a poor man with no big connections, rescuing her and giving her a new identity. So they falsified documents, invented another girl of the same age called Sarah that no one would look for because she doesn't even exist, invented a story to go along with the ghost girl—that she was abandoned after birth—and used that ghost as a cover to adopt Bella legally. So, the relationship between William and Julia didn't end after a divorce; they divorced on purpose so he could protect little Bella. But then the fire happened, and Julia died. And since little Bella was gone, everyone assumed she died with her."
"There's also a strange thing I discovered at the cemetery," Marco added. "Behind Janice Moore's grave, there were three more stones that had the names Ricardo, Sophia, and Isabella."
"Isabella?" Damien asked.
"The stone had a carved angel on it. No date."
"So Bella is Isabella, Isabella is Sarah... She's a Rossi."
"We have no evidence to support the claim, but I assume that's actually the truth," Marco said.
"Either they think she's really dead, or they're protecting her by saying she died."
"Do you think they know she's alive and are looking for her, or they knew she was alive, but couldn't find her yet?" Marco asked.
"That's what scares me," Damien replied. "For a family like the Rossis, it wouldn't be hard to find her if they wanted to..."
"I disagree. It took a lot of digging for us to find these fragments of her past, and we've used government and military resources to find these things. How much more powerful could the Rossi family be?"
"An old family like theirs, you couldn't imagine the power that comes with that name."
Damien also told him to keep digging. "We need more evidence that Sarah is actually Isabella Rossi." After their conversation, Damien hung up and headed out of the company toward the car where Johnny was waiting.