Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I glanced down at the address Damon had texted me and then back up to the building before me. The

numbers matched, but I was pretty sure I was in the wrong place.

Ambrosia Royale was something straight out of a fairy tale. I couldn’t believe Damon lived here.

Unlike the Meridian, which was a casino built for the high class, Ambrosia Royale looked like a massive

palace.

Stretching as far as the eye could see, the windows were lit up and the entire area was surrounded by

greenery. Finely cut grass and topiaries and flower beds of every kind. It looked exactly like the kind of

thing you’d see in a European castle.

There was even a gorgeous fountain with stone statue cupids out front.

This is where Damon wanted me to go?

Feeling very out of place, I sucked it up and took the long drive up to the entrance. When I got out,

there was a man in a suit waiting out front.

“Welcome to Ambrosia Royale, a luxury casino. May I help you today?” the man asked in an accent.

He was clearly not from around here.

“Uh, yeah. I’m here to see Damon Steyn,” I told him.

“Name, please?” the man asked.

“Adelaide Hildebrand,” I told him, quickly.

The man nodded once, “Oh, yes. Everything has been arranged, you may go right on up. Take the

elevator straight up and you’ll be there. You can’t miss it.”

“Uh, thanks,” I said as the man nodded once and offered his hand out. I reluctantly handed over my

keys and he took them gently, taking my car and parking it for me.

I climbed the stairs up to the entrance, holding onto the marble railings. I felt very much like a princess

in a movie.

Ambrosia Royle was quiet- unlike every other casino, I’d been in. The man did say it was a luxury.

casino and he was not kidding.

From floor to ceiling, everything was dripping with a luxurious atmosphere-even the games were quiet

as men in suits and women in gorgeous dresses played. The sound of muted conversations filled the

rooms.

It was actually more relaxing than I thought it would be. The pillars were carved, every inch detailed,

and the floors were marble. Accents of gold showed up everywhere I looked. Gold was always the

biggest sign of wealth.

True to the man’s word, I spotted the elevator easily and pressed the button to the top floor-the 12th. I

couldn’t believe it.

How did Damon even afford a place like this? One square foot was more than I got paid in a year. Must

be his trust fund, I thought. The Steyns were filthy rich after all.

What it must be like to be a trust fund baby, I sighed.

The elevator dinged, and I stepped out directly in front of the apartment. I tried the door, finding it

unlocked, and stepped inside.

It was simple, much to my surprise, and very large. The flooring was the same marble, but there was

Chapter 14

an air to the apartment that the downstairs just didn’t have.

1 was afraid to touch anything down there cause the place looked like it was a display-a showcase.

But here….

Papers were lying on the coffee table, and pictures and drawings were on the walls. The fridge had

magnets on it and random little items were scattered throughout the apartment.

In the kitchen, there was a dirty dish in the sink, and he’d left the salt out on the counter.

The apartment was lived-in in a way that was almost comforting to me. I could see how much time

Damon spent here. I could see Damon all over the apartment.

Near the open windows, I found a drafting table piled with unfinished work. Bookshelves filled to the

brim with books-unsorted and uneven. There were so many, they were even piled on the floor-boxes

and boxes of drawings all left out and unattended to.

I smiled, thinking about our past together.

The apartment reminded me of when we were teenagers.

Damon’s room had always been what I called ‘controlled chaos.’ Everything was thrown around in a

way that only Damon could find things. Cleaning it up, however, was the one thing he hated more than

anything else.

In the living room, Damon was relaxed on the couch-phone to his ear as he spoke rapidly into it. He

looked serious like he was in the zone.

I raised my eyebrow as I realized he was speaking Mandarin. I didn’t know it myself, but I knew enough

to catch a few words like ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and ‘expensive. How did he know Mandarin? Why did he know

Mandarin?

Damon spotted me and held out a finger. Give him a moment, I interpreted. I rolled my eyes. heading

instead to the drafting table I’d seen when I walked in.

On top of the desk was an unfinished blueprint labeled ‘AD-Dream’. Even though I wasn’t the best at

deciphering floorplans. I could see how much love and attention had been put into every detail.

It was a house, or at least, the beginnings of a house.

It was like something I had dreamed of once.

I used to claim as a child that I wanted my husband to build me a house. I even drew silly little sketches

in crayon of what I wanted the house to look like.

It was just a silly dream as a kid, but the floorplan before me looked just like I had wanted.

Minus the slide made of candy. That would’ve been fun. Was this that house?

“Sorry about that.”

Damon approached me, not even caring that I was no through his stuff. Maybe he actually wanted. me

to know more about him.

“Seems like you’re a genuine architect,” I flashed him a grin, leaving the drafting table and unfinished

design.

“Seems like you’re not surprised,” Damon smiled, crossing his arms.

Despite how much we hated one another, we had always made a good team as children. We were both

smart, just in different ways.

“I still remember the second-grade science fair,” I told him, the memory making me smile. “I know how

smart you are, even if you try to hide it.”

I had been devastated when I was paired up with Damon for the science fair, but I quickly learned

Chapter 14

not to complain. I was always the dreamer-the imagination and ideas-but Damon was the brains.

He could make anything I dreamed of a reality and that’s exactly what happened when we took first

place at the fair.

“Any kid could do that,” Damon shrugged. I looked at him incredulously.

“Not every eight-year-old can make a diorama of a star going supernova and exploding into edible

sprinkles,” I snorted, playfully. He often managed to make me smile.

“That’s what you wanted. I just made it happen.” Damon smirked. His gaze never left me.

“Well, my arch-nemesis can’t be an idiot, or else I would be too,” I said, gazing through his books. They

were color-coded, I realized. So typical of him. “Is Architecture what you actually went to college for?

Not business like you told everyone?”

“Yes.” Damon answered honestly. “And no. I double-majored.”

“Of course, you did,” I rolled my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I’d like to keep my business a secret from my father and the rest of my family. They don’t need to

know,” Damon said.

Damon had always been a master of secrets. Maybe it had something to do with his reputation as a

playboy. Maybe that had all been an act.

Whatever he was hiding, I knew it had to be for a good reason. He and his family never did.

get along.

If he wanted to keep his life a secret, I wasn’t going to be the one to spoil that. I understood the need to

separate from your family.

Damon left for the kitchen, and I took a seat on the couch, still wondering why he had called me there. I

looked around the apartment while I waited for him to return. I was not going to want to go home after

this.

Damon came back with wine and two glasses. He poured them, and I noticed he did not look like he

was in a good mood. His gaze was serious, icy even.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as he handed me the wine glass and sat down across from me.

He sighed and then grabbed something from his pocket and set it down on the table between us. I

glanced at it with a frown.

Did it look like a jewelry box, too small for a necklace or bracelet? Maybe earrings or a ring?

He glanced up at me, his eyes deadly serious, and I stiffened in place at his intense look. Then he

asked me the one thing I never expected to come out of his mouth.

“Are you

still in love with Ashton?”