Daman stepped into the Sunrise Café and took a look around. He didn't know what Mikael looked like, but the man sitting in the far end of the café seemed nervous enough as he sipped on his glass of water.

The duke dismissed the waitron politely as he took long strides to the table in question. "Mikael?"

"Yes?" Mikael asked quizzically but when his eyes raked over Daman he felt a little intimidated. Daman exuded confidence and dominance and the duke specifically played hard with those factors for this particular meeting.

Mikael protested when he saw Daman uninvitedly take a seat opposite him. "Sorry man, that seat is taken."

Daman placed his left palm flat on the table and looked jarringly at Mikael. The duke was at odds looking at the man. He hated him that's for sure but the thought of this man being Hera's taste baffled him. She could do so much better. She was so gorgeous in every way and this man was...average if not less. A Jesse Wiliams lookalike if you will, but ten times less attractive.

"Yes. It's taken by me. I'm the one you were waiting for. Not Hera."

Mikael had confusion taking over his face as he processed what the duke was saying. "Come again? Who even are you?" It was evident that Mikael was getting annoyed. He was here for Hera only and it was so difficult getting away from Sonya when she was constantly up his ass after cheating on her.

Daman smiled sardonically as his gave Mikael the stink eye. "Daman Faiyaz, Duke of Doulah... and most importantly Hera's fiancé. Nice to meet you," the duke finished of mockingly and held out his hand for a shake.

Seeing that Mikael had no intention of shaking his hand, Daman retracted satisfied at the reaction.

"Duke? And Hera's fiancé? My Hera is not engaged or even seeing anyone."

Daman fished out his phone and placed it in front of Mikael, showing of the wonderful engagement pictures that the agency had emailed to him earlier on. He made it a point to show Mikael the picture where he heavily kissed her. It was explicit and bound to evoke jealousy.

It wasn't in Daman's nature to be so damn petty, this was a first, but he was officially territorial over Hera. She was special.

"She is soon going to be the Duchess of Doulah. A real-life princess. In future, Doulah's queen. Specially my queen," Daman leaned forward and emphasized the last part. It irked him how Mikael how referred to Hera as his. The duke by no means thought of her as someone's property or possession, but he did harbour a sense of overprotectiveness over her. Cleary it was making him like an entitled bastard to anyone from the outside.

Mikael was stunned at the photos and shocked at what Daman had revealed. He leaned back in his chair with his head in a mess. "I made a mistake. Hera is the one for me. She loves me and I love her. We are simply going through a rough period which is making us stronger. You need to leave her," Mikael finished of determined to get his way.

Daman was truly astounded at the audacity of this man. How was he ever fit to be a father? He was the literal definition of rubbish. The duke felt sorry for the little boy who was tied to him.

"You're one selfish bastard do you know that? Your spn and mother of your child needs you and here you are trying to make Hera's life miserable again." Daman scoffed at the poor definition of man and crossed his arms in front of him.

"Let me just get straight to the point. Stay. Away. From. Hera. The hurt you've put so many people through for your selfish interests disgusts me. Hera and your chapter is over. It's my turn now. You've lost out on the most remarkable thing that has ever happened to you and if I see one more text from you to Hera, trust me when I say that you will not like what I'd do." It wasn't an empty threat from the duke, if Mikael refused to back down then Daman had his was of making people shut up.

With that, Daman pushed his chair back as he stood up and stomped out the café in annoyance. That man wasn't meant to be in Hera's life anymore. It was a season over and Daman hoped he'd made his point clear.

As the duke drove home it was evident that his temper was flaring up. He could not for the life of him comprehend why he was feeling this was. Was Hera really over that guy? "Fuck him," Daman thought out loud and pulled over taking a breath.

He rolled down the window and was thankful for the breeze that hit him. It was overcast today and looking outside he was greeted by the sight of beautiful flowers set up on stand. Obviously he had to get a bunch for Hera. It was quite pathetic how he hasn't personally bought her a single flower as yet.

Daman stepped out just as a slight drizzle started. He chose a graceful bouquet of white and yellow lilies. It was cheery and fresh.

The duke handed the money to the vendor and the flashing sign of a store caught Daman's eyes. He quickly placed the flowers in the car and galloped to the store to avoid getting caught by the now heavy rainfall.

The bell chimed as he pushed the door opened and Daman smiled looking up at it. It was quite a homely and nostalgic book store as compared to lush interior designs of most things nowadays.

There was nobody present except for an elderly couple sitting on the benches by the shelf and a teenager jamming his head to his earphones while taking down notes from a borrowed book.

The earthy smell of the books was pleasant and combined with the fresh rainfall from outside, the duke was at ease now.

He lingered around the store for a bit taking his time at the world economics and business trade genres. He completely bypassed the romance section not daring to go even near those sappy pages.

"Can I help you with anything?" a preppy, petite girl asked Daman with a smile on her face.

The duke shook his head no and thanked her for her assistance but before she could leave him to browse some more, a thought had occurred. "Actually," he began unsure, "What books are nice to gift... to a girlfriend. Well, fiancé technically."

The girl whose name was Tanith twinkled in awe. Working at a bookstore meant that she was all into the perfect fantasy worlds and how cute it was to see a man slightly nervous at gifting his girlfriend something.

She led Daman to aisle 12 seeing that he avidly avoided going to the romance section. "Most gift-worthy books are here. Let me just run to the back and get a couple more boxes. New stock came in today," Tanith eagerly said and sprinted off to the store room.

Uncomfortably, Daman's eyes roamed the shelves. Crossword books, sudoku pads, notebooks, diaries along with the prepacked novels and a trinket attached was what he saw but nothing stood out.

After a lengthy search, he finally found something worthy. A fill in the blanks book for affirmations. Yes, he knew about her diary and had read every bit of it when he saw it lingering on her bed opened once when he was passing by.

He couldn't resist anything to do with Hera so naturally he attentively read everything and he was so satisfied to see his name, to see the simple letters of D,A,M,A and N appear on every single page for what she was grateful for.

He didn't tell her, but he was grateful for her too.