Page 44 of My Ruthless Husband

By then I became greedy so I texted him one day with:

Me: Navigating the Metro today. Let’s just say my French isn’t as good as I thought!

It wasn’t exactly true. I can speak French, but I was dying to know what he’ll say. My excitement dwindled when his reply came.

Damian: You’ll survive. Just follow the signs.

He probably knew I’d be with Dad and his army of guard. While it wasn’t what I hoped it would be, it did make me chuckle. Then as a form of punishment, I began spamming him with tons and tons of pictures of art and paintings.

Me: Stumbled upon a local art market today. The paintings are breathtaking.Like you. I wanted to add. They are breathtaking just like you, Damian.

But I didn’t. So far, our exchanges were friendly. And I didn’t want to disrupt it. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship by confessing my feelings. So I continued talking to him casually.

My trip to Paris was unforgettable, but what stayed with me the most wasn’t the sights or the pastries.

It was Damian’s gruff yet caring replies.

They reminded me, in his own understated way, that he was part of my journey, even from miles away. He wasn’t overly expressive, but his words held a quiet reassurance that made me feel seen and cared for.

Then came a point where we slowly eased into calls. I remember being tongue tied the first time I heard his deep “hello?”

I thought texting him was fun but it didn’t compare with the experience of talking over phone calls.

We mostly talked at night because during the day, he was busy with work and I was spending time with dad.

And although our calls consisted of me talking the entire time with his occasional grunts, I was still over the moon. He neveronce ignored my calls. Ever. It was like we were in a long-distance relationship.

When I returned to L.A. after my summer holidays, I kept waiting for him to make the first move—not romantically, just to hang out. But he didn’t. And that silence had me replaying every interaction we’d ever had.

From the very beginning, I was the one to initiate everything—exchanging numbers, starting the texts, and eventually moving to phone calls. Sure, he went along with it, but it was always me taking the lead.

That realization made me stop and think. After a lot of overanalyzing (because let’s face it, that’s what I do), I convinced myself that Damian hadn’t taken the first step because of our age gap. He was the responsible one—older, and clearly wiser. Pursuing me wouldn’t have felt morally right to him. Not that he ever gave any real sign he was interested in me, but even if he had been, I knew he’d never make the first move.

So I decided to do my homework. If I wanted to take things further with him, I had to know more about him. So while I was in Paris, I utilized my free time into researching everything there is about Damian Montgomery.

And before I knew it, I had plunged headfirst down the rabbit hole, consumed by the need to uncover every hidden relic and decipher everything there is about him.

Damian Montgomery—self-made billionaire, visionary, and a master of multiple domains. The search results painted a picture of a man whose journey began as a tech entrepreneur during his college years. An app he developed had skyrocketed to popularity, becoming the foundation of his fortune. But that was just the beginning. What fascinated me was how he seamlessly transitioned from tech into becoming a real estate mogul. I read about his humble yet risky start when he invested all hismoney in a single property that eventually snowballed into an impressive portfolio.

He was a finance mogul too. As my cursor clicked through more articles, I learned about his ventures in the finance world, the strategic investments that consistently turned impressive profits.

It wasn’t luck; it was pure talent and sharp intelligence, as if he had an innate understanding of market trends others could only dream of.

He had even ventured into launching his own investment fund, a move that cleverly merged his interests in tech and real estate.

This was a man who not only conquered industries but also forced them to evolve.

I discovered that Damian had faced challenges that would have brought most people to their knees—market crashes, regulatory battles in the real estate sector, and the unpredictable shifts in the tech industry.

Then, as if his journey couldn’t be more intriguing, I stumbled upon the fact that he had been adopted around the age of twelve. There wasn’t much information available on the internet about his life before he was adopted. It was like before becoming a Montgomery, Damian never existed.

I learned about the loss of his adoptive parents during his college years and how he had been left to shoulder the crushing weight of his adoptive father’s debts. Despite having no support to fall back on, he managed to rise above it all and carve out a path to success on his own.

The drive, the determination—it was as if he was determined to prove something, not only to the world but to himself.

By the time I was done with my research, I was more curious about him. He was a man who had turned challenges into stepping stones and had rewritten the rules of success.

As I read about his journey, article after article, I couldn’t help but wonder what drove him—what kind of determination had pushed him to carve out such an extraordinary path against all odds.

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