Chapter 34

Samuel is unresponsive, his relationship with Dominic was never deep enough for him to say they had any bond.

They met when they were children, Samuel, a little older than Dominic. But they spent little time together, as Rosália sent Dominic to boarding school and as a teenager, Dominic ran away from there and when he reappeared, he was already a billionaire.

But even if they had no ties, he believed that Dominic had a debt to his family, however, at that moment, he realized that this fact alone could not keep Dominic by his side. Nina was the scissors that could cut this thin connection they had.

— Dom? — Jared arrives, and they both look at him. At that moment he realized that the atmosphere was very tense and Jared gave a slight sideways smile. — I'll be back another time.

Jared says, walking away from the door, but is stopped by Dominic.

— Come back, Jared! — Dominic looks at Samuel again, with a threatening look and says — I have nothing more to discuss with you, go away and be warned. Stay away!

Dominic grabs Samuel's shoulder, squeezing it roughly and he decides not to argue. He knew that if the billionaire wanted to destroy him, he had the strength to do so and if Nina decided to turn Dominic against Samuel, he would be finished.

His luck is that he realized that for some reason, Nina was afraid of him, even though she had Dominic by her side.

Without arguing, Samuel leaves and Jared enters.

— Did you make the proposal? Will Nina sign the contract?

— She didn't sign it and probably won't sign it, Jared! — Dominic says, impatiently — I already found out everything and I know why you didn't want to tell me. You want to manipulate me, don't you? He found out that Nina was Samuel's lover, pushed me towards her, because he wanted me to end up turning against him out of jealousy and avenge his sister? Isn't? Do you think I would be vindictive just out of jealousy?

— No! Just like Emily, Nina was a victim of Samuel. I really want to have you by my side to avenge my sister's death, Dom! Can't you see they're doing the same things with Nina? Do you want her to have the same ending as Emily?

— You have no proof of what you say, Samuel. Her sister was not mentally well, she was using drugs and shot herself in the head!

— No! It wasn't that, Dom! I knew Emily, she was shy and closed off. She was affectionate and sweet, there was nothing wrong with her. These things happened after she got involved with Samuel.

— How do you know she hasn't changed? You weren't around when it all happened. We were both in Africa, Jared!

Jared, who was always happy and relaxed, seemed extremely excited. Talking about his sister's death gave him a completely dark aura.

He blamed himself for not being there and not protecting her from Samuel. All she knew was from rumors that she was having a relationship with Samuel, and this was years before he met Nina, but already at that time, Samuel was already married to Kira.

— I didn't have proof, but now I do. — Jared says, looking seriously at Dominic — People pointed to my sister as if she was a person with a wrong life and out of madness took her own life. They said she had overdosed and the hallucinations ended up making her commit suicide. But, I asked Patel to show me Nina's scans, Dom...

He pauses and combs his hair with his fingers. Jared takes a deep breath and continues:

— My sister's tests revealed the same drug they gave Nina. They would kill Nina too... Don't you understand? Dom, only you can stop Samuel. He got away with it and if he is elected, he will have too much power in his hands. You can't let that happen!

Dominic changes his expression, he is surprised by Jared's revelation, but still remains incredulous:

— It could all just be a coincidence... You can't prove what you say just by saying that they gave her the same substance that was in Nina's bloodstream.

— I can, because I recovered the footage from the night at the hotel. They deleted everything, but they didn't tell you that as a lawyer, I know how to achieve things that normal people can't.

Dominic frowns and meanwhile, Jared fiddles with his smartphone until he finds what he wants and shows it to Dom.

Dom takes the cell phone from Jared's hands roughly. The image he saw was revolting. She saw the bodyguards taking Nina to the room, there were no images from inside the room, but there were images of Samuel entering there, of Kira leaving with the bodyguards and of Nina crawling out of there.

The more he looked at the images, his beautiful face distorted with anger.

— Are you seeing? The universe knew that only you could stop your pseudo family. Who would have thought that the day Rosália and Kira beat Nina, she would end up beating you in the middle of the street? Out of thousands of people, did it hit you exactly?

— Were they the ones who beat Nina that day? — Dominic asks, raising her eyebrows.

— It was, but I have no proof. I only managed to get reports from a few witnesses who preferred to remain anonymous. You know how it is? Nobody wants to mess with Samuel's family. I'm a man of exact things, but I like to admire these strange things that destiny does, you fell in love at first sight with the woman who will convince you to destroy those people.

— I didn't fall in love with her… — Dominic puts her hands in her pockets and turns her back to Samuel — I feel a different attraction than I've ever felt, but that's not love. Don't think I don't want to do the same thing to her as I've done before!

— Attraction is also part of love.

— Shut up, Jared! — Dominic gets angry — Who are you to talk about love? I've never seen him in love with anyone, he's certainly the last person on earth who should talk about feelings.

Jared shrugs and then responds:

— One day it will happen, perhaps. The same as what happened to you! — he teases Dom and then returns to his serious tone. — I thought I would reject Nina if I knew about her and Samuel's past, that's why I didn't tell her before. But now I see that I should have told you. You didn't back out of the contract, did you? Where is Nina?

Dominic sits in his armchair, relaxed and exhales, discouraged.

— She resigned, said she would never come back here again.

- What? And you left?

— Patel went after her, but something tells me it won't help. She doesn't listen to anyone.

— And why are you so calm?

— Because she'll think better of it and end up asking for her job back. You told me you're in debt, right?

— What if she finds a job elsewhere?

— I'll make sure you don't find it, Jared. — Dominic says, giving a wink.

— Poor thing, that's cruel. Why don't you look for it?

— I've never gone after any woman and she won't be the first. — he plays with the pen and then says — You told me that she is in debt, so send me all the debts she has in detail. — Dominic says, with a smirk.

— What do you want to do? — Jared asks, suspicious.

— I'm going to buy her debts, Jared... that's a great way to force things to happen faster.