Chapter 16

Yvonne raised her chin and spoke into Damon's face mere inches from her, "You can check the CCTV, Mr. Brown. You'll find that I have only just arrived, and I heard nothing."

Damon Brown said nothing and the strength from his hand did not falter. Through his suit, Yvonne could feel his muscles tensing like a tiger ready to spring.

"If there was anything I heard, that would only be the name 'Mitchell Cook'. I major in AI, and I know Atlantis Corporations has just recently launched their self-driving vehicle. That is why I stopped momentarily when I heard the name of Atlantis' president and did not manage to move away..."

Damon's lips twisted into a sneer. "I did mention Mitchell Cook all right. But that's only because we have business dealings. So, does that disappoint you, Ms. York, for failing to get the information you seek?"

Yvonne had barely any interest in the cooperation between Atlantis and Olympus. Rather, her mind was on the approaching footsteps coming from behind.

Damon hissed gloatingly, his voice more sinister than ever, "They are coming; my mother and Erick among them."

Yvonne's pupils contracted with horror.

"What do you think will happen," he grinned with a pitiless jeer and said, "when my mother sees the same woman who is my nephew's girlfriend seducing me after an intimate dance?"

As he hoped, the woman nestled in his arms began trembling. "Even if the woman had once saved her before," he went on, "I daresay my mother would never allow her to be one of us."

Yvonne balled her hands into fists and she stared defiantly at Damon, "So you want to drive me away? That's your purpose, is it?"

"Yes," the one-syllable reply came like the final nail on a coffin. His hand released Yvonne's chin and slide through her hair to the back of her head, pulling her head firmly towards his to kiss her.

The cascades of footfalls from the other end of the garden came closer and closer and in just seconds, they would reach the corner and see them both!

Yvonne felt a knot tying in her chest and a chill sweeping through her veins.

Despair laid ahead; she would lose everything and everyone.

In barely one minute, Old Lady Brown would see everything, and she would lose her one last opportunity for revenge: House Brown.

And some time after that, she would be captured by her father, Miles York or the henchmen of the evil Nicholas Ward, to be offered to the latter as a slave.

She might survive. She might even be able to achieve her revenge in the end. Yet there was no telling what horrors she would be subjected to before that.

Yvonne felt herself struggling in the middle of a maelstrom of emotions as she stared deeply into the eyes of the man before her.

He was powerful and strong. With just a simple flick of his finger, he could destroy every shred of effort. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how careful she was, nothing would make any difference.

Hate, dissatisfaction, and humiliation swirled in her eyes. In the next ten seconds, Yvonne had never forced herself so greatly before.

"Please, please, Mr. Brown," she bit hard as she forced her lips to utter the words with reluctance and difficulty.

He shuddered. In Noelle York's eyes, he saw a look that reminded him of someone from a distant past. "That woman..."

Damon Brown remained unfazed and Yvonne brought herself to squeak again, "Please, Mr. Brown."

"I beg you."

Tears welled up in her eyes. She could only do so much to prevent them from streaming out, returning a burning, and belligerent stare back at Damon Brown pallid sockets.

The footsteps were coming from right around the corner. Yvonne took a deep breath, her eyes closing slowly. In less than five seconds, everything would crumble to dust.

Yet, Damon felt a sting in his heart at the sight of her in despair. He released her and left only a curt message as he spun to leave, "Don't ever let me catch you repeating this! You know the consequences!"

With a truculent glare at his leaving back, she asked, "The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Have you read it before?"

Damon turned back to look at her, his gaze inexplicably dark.

Boldly, Yvonne recited, "A man can be as insignificant as dust, but not as distorted as a maggot."

There was an excerpt in the book that she loved in particular.

"If dawn fails to come, you can live in the dark;

If your voice is dangerous, then keep your silence;

If you are too weak to shine, don’t brighten others;

But...

Do not defend darkness because you are used to it;

Do not be proud of your cynicism;

Do not laugh at those who are more courageous and passionate than you;

A man can be as insignificant as dust, but not as distorted as a maggot."

Damon Brown felt something churning in his mind. His fists involuntarily clenched tightly as his mind lurched with nostalgia at a distant memory, long forgotten, rearing its head.

"She said something like this before. That woman... The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Have you read it before? That's what she said before...

"And yet... Noelle York... He felt himself trembling. Third time. This is the third time she gave me this sensation.

"How she looked when I saw her at the lab, that was the first time;

"Then, the look she gave me just now, that's the second;

"Then this. The excerpt from the Mandela book. The exact same that she recited before."

Yvonne's purpose of reciting Mandela's quote was to give Damon her assurance of her integrity; that she might have hailed from relatively lowly birth, but she would never be unscrupulous and sneaky deceits.

"But, what coincidence is this?!

"And she dared to eavesdrop on my phone call. If she had been someone else, she would have been dead a long time ago!"

"Yet why?" A voice asked inside. Was it all because of that surrealistic and wistful sensation?

A tinge of sadness seeped into Damon's heart as he reminisced about the woman's death.