Fighting Destiny (2 page)

Shaking his head
to clear away the memories, Darius stood up and walked over to the glass wall to look down upon the surrounding grounds below. His office was situated on the eleventh floor of the hotel, so he was far away from what was transpiring below. But this elevation did offer him a panoramic view of the Caribbean Sea to the right and the tropical inland regions as he panned his vision to the left. What met his sight wasn’t surprising at all! The ocean, instead of being its usual sparkling turquoise was now a murky grey, as soil and sand washed into the pounding surf. The beaches were deserted and there was no sign of activity there. The roads surrounding the hotel property showed signs of flooding though and he immediately thought to call down to the front desk to ensure there were no immediate issues with the guests.

Candasee had always said he
could be quite self-centred, mulish and what was it, oh yes myopic was the word she’d often used. Maybe to some extent she was right! After all here he was upstairs enjoying the storm while the rest of the island was surely under some kind of flood watch by now.

Striding over to his desk
, Darius sat and dialled the number at the front desk of his hotel. After speaking to the on duty reservations manager he was assured that the property had suffered no damage and all of the guests heeded all of the warnings to stay inside and be safe during the sudden bad weather. Breathing a sigh of relief at that good news, Darius hung up the phone and began to prepare for his next meeting. 

For
three days, his hotel would have the pleasure and prestige of hosting a world class travel and tourism show which would be travelling all over Derrien Island to capture its beauty. It was none other than, “
Where In the World Is Sally Flanders?
” the most watched and highly rated travel show on one of the major North American cable networks. Sally Flanders only came to luxury destinations where the visitor reviews were highly rated. So, it was a definite honour for her production team to consider making his hotel her base of operations during her time on the island.

He,
the hotel’s management team and the Derrien Island Tourism Board had been working overtime to make sure that all the plans were in place and so far everything was going well. This could mean that his hotel could win the highly coveted Caribbean’s Best Hotel travel award so it wasn’t something he was taking lightly at all.

Wi
th this kind of pressure it wasn’t surprising for him to realize that he hadn’t been downstairs or even outside of this suite in the last two days. Having his office paired with a live-in suite was the ultimate convenience for the consummate workaholic he’d become. In fifteen minutes, his attorney’s would be here as well as Sally’s legal team for the final contractual arrangements for the show. She would be arriving tomorrow afternoon and the filming would begin the following morning.

At that thought, his thoughts o
nce again drifted to Candasee. She was a brilliant corporate attorney with a real knack for closing even the toughest deals in the interest of her clients but unfortunately, she didn’t love it. She was his right hand, his partner, and she handled his business deals in the past very professionally. She always made sure that he knew the fine print and what he was getting into with every deal. More than once she’d helped him secure lucrative contracts which expanded his wealth exponentially. But that life with him did not make her happy. It just wasn’t enough! He remembered bitterly.

He was building an empire for her and the family they could’ve had, but none of that mattered to her. She didn’t care about the money; she just wanted to be
happy.  He’d often told her how irresponsible and immature it was of her to want to live her life like that, although he knew it never made any sense the way he felt about her decision to quit being an attorney. It wasn’t a crime for her to choose a career that she enjoyed. People did that every day, so that clearly wasn’t the real reason why he was so vehemently opposed to her decision to throw it all away to become a dance instructor. With every class she took it seemed she just slipped away from him and everything he did to keep her close, just served to push her further away.

He recalled that it
was through her work as an attorney that they met for the first time. Even now he could remember with startling clarity the day he walked into Kiering and Plessette Associates located on the island of Barbados to seal the deal to finalize the purchase of the land on which this hotel now proudly sat in Derrien Island. It belonged to a wealthy Barbadian retired justice of the peace, who no longer wanted to develop it and after pulling some strings, he was able to secure one of the best stretches of beachfront property on the entire island. Most of the early negotiations were done by video conferencing but that day he went to sign the official documents indicating that the sale of the land was now finalized. It was a one-day trip which ended up lasting almost two weeks; all because of her!

Derrien Island
was his mother’s home country and he moved here with her at the age of ten. He was born in Scotland but his experiences there had forever closed his mind toward ever wanting to make that country his home. It wasn’t anything to do with the country itself per say because from his vague memories it was a really beautiful place. The problem lay with his father’s side of the family who were so abhorrent to him that he’d forced them from his mind a long time ago. He even found it difficult to recall what his father looked like sometimes. All he knew was that they made the early years of his life and his mother’s life such a nightmare that eventually she was unable to take the abuse any more. It was then that they relocated to her former home on Derrien Island.

So
, purchasing the land the hotel stood on was therefore very important to him. It was his way of making sure that his mother would be taken care of financially and have part ownership of something she could really be proud of.

Candasee
just happened to be the attorney assigned to close the deal. Never in his wildest dreams did he think the Ms. Maxwell he was expecting would turn out to be a young, dark-skinned and exquisitely gorgeous woman who to his immediate delight was wearing no wedding rings. His usual demeanour of steely indifference worked wonders in his business meetings but on that day it seemed totally out of place. It was very difficult to concentrate on anything else but her during that brief meeting.

As he signed the many documents, he found himself watching her
fluid movements discreetly from under his eyelashes. She was so calm, aloof and business-like, but beneath all of that radiated warmth which was both magnetic and calming to him. Just being in her presence set him at ease and on fire all at the same time.

Miss
Candasee Maxwell was about five foot eight and had a slender, shapely body that not even her tailored, black business suit could hide. Her skin was the dark, smooth, deep even tone of rich Arabica coffee grounds. Long straight hair that clearly reached way past her shoulders was parted in the centre of her forehead and pulled back into a neat ponytail. A pair of rimless glasses was perched on her pert nose. She had the fullest, softest honey-coloured lips he had ever seen and thought should ever be legal on a woman’s face covered in only a thin sheen of clear gloss.

But nothing could have prepared him for t
he beauty of her slanting slate-grey eyes, which the lenses of her spectacles couldn’t hide as she looked up at him from under a fan of long jet-black eyelashes when she sat.  It still amazed him till this day that her eyes were the exact same colour as his and from that moment forward he considered them to be his long-lost matching pair.

She was all business that day
, but he was a mess of hidden emotions. Over the years, he had learned how to conceal them quite well and he was at least thankful for that skill. While she went through the finer details of the contract, he listened and enjoyed the almost musical sound of her voice and her accent. By the time the meeting was over and the papers were signed, he’d already decided that before he left the island he would return to her office, not as a client but to get to know her better.

He remembered
with a smile his clever ruse to leave his monogrammed gold pen in the boardroom and how well it worked when he returned after work hours, to retrieve it claiming it had much sentimental value for him. It worked like a charm and soon with a little small talk Candasee was smiling and talking to him. Taking the chance on her good mood, he’d nonchalantly asked, “Will you have a drink with me later to celebrate the signing of the contract?”

He remembered how her eyes narrowed as she considered
the appropriateness of his invitation and could almost read her mind as she debated within herself as to whether or not her associates would consider it to be the proper thing to do. She’d always had those kinds of internal conflicts throughout the years he’d gotten to know her. Maybe that was why she didn’t have the stomach to continue working as an attorney-at-law. Her idealistic way of viewing the world often got in the way in his opinion, of making decisions based on the cold hard facts of reality. But they discovered just how different they were on that score much, much later.

That day he reminded her with a coaxing smile that they had concluded their business and he was
no longer her client so she didn’t have to worry about it affecting their working relationship.

“Just a drink, to celebrate before
I leave tomorrow!” he’d coaxed gently till finally she’d relented.

He’d taken her to a waterfront tapas bar and restaurant and b
y the end of the first drink, he’d convinced her to stay longer and to have dinner with him. At no point during the night did they even discuss the contract. Instead he got to know more about her and he found himself opening up and sharing details about himself that he had never told another soul. It was as though her eyes were just part of the indicator that she was his other half. Usually for him, women came and went due to his singular focus on developing his businesses. Truly, until that point no woman meant anything to him except for his mother and aunts. But in that moment, he could see that Candasee was the woman who would change all of that for him.

He talked and she shared and together they drank an entire bottle of wine
. They ended up being the last to leave the restaurant around eleven that night, totally oblivious to the time. He chuckled at the memory of how her eyes widened in shock as she looked at her watch when the restaurant manager politely reminded them of the time and that they were ready to close up.

For him
, it was truly love at first sight and till this day he knew that he still hadn’t gotten over her. She was his first love and instinctively then he knew she would also probably be his last.

How had such a deep connection changed to this empty gnawing space which now occupied his life
?

He’d cancelled weeks of meetings just to be with her after that night and flew in on many weekends disrupting
his work schedules unable to be out of her presence for very long. They did that until it became clear that being separated from each other was pure madness and they got married after a brief but excruciating six months. Her parents told her she was making a huge mistake and that their relationship would end in divorce. He’d hated them for that especially when it came true. It was as though they’d planted that seed of doubt in her mind every chance they got over the years.

L
etting her go from his life without a fight was sheer pride on his part and a decision that made no sense when he considered how he truly felt about her still.  Trying to move on turned out to be a waste of time because so far no woman he knew could hold even a flame to the bonfire she had ignited within him.

Over the last few weeks
, he’d even begun to entertain the idea that he would fly out to Barbados to surprise her for her birthday in two months time. It was a crazy plan that had the word failure stamped all over it considering the way things stood between them when they separated. But he had to know if there was still a chance that they could somehow resolve this mess between them. Without her he knew he’d allowed his life had become pretty unbalanced! It wasn’t so much that he didn’t have opportunities to enjoy himself or that business diminished but it was a certain happiness, joy and peace to living he had with her that was gone now. She brought out the best in his creativity, his humorous and fun loving sides, and even sharpened his intuitive capabilities.
He missed her terribly
!

“Mr. Brogan, your guests
have arrived for the meeting!” spoke the voice of his secretary Portia through the intercom, interrupting his latest daydream. The adjoining room to his office had been converted into a reception area for his clients and an office for his secretary Portia and his private security team. He also had an adjoining conference room where he held meetings.

Darius leaned over and pressed
the button, “Thank you Portia and please send them into the conference room immediately!”  He felt a little relief knowing that at least for another few moments his mind would have some respite from thinking about her. A business matter of this magnitude would require his full attention and he couldn’t afford to mess up the details with these fantasy mind trips of his.

“Sir, before I do that I need
to let you know something first. I am coming in!” said Portia in an agitated tone.