375 Who Am I?

Bewilderment masked her face as Katherine studied Damien's equally confused expression. She walked up to him and received her phone, her eyes scanning the screen where the unknown number sent her a message.

"Matty changed numbers again?" She looked at the text message and then checked the call registry to see what Damien meant, wondering what was going on. "That's weird."

Damien didn't like that Katherine was calling Matthew by that name. It felt so intimate but he didn't comment on it despite feeling a bitter taste on his tongue. "Why does he change numbers often?"

"I didn't really ask…" She called the number that sent her a text message and after two rings, someone picked up the call.

"Hey, Kath," Matthew answered.

"Matt, oh… it's really you. I wasn't sure, so I had to call."

"Yeah, sorry for the trouble…"

Katherine met Damien's stare as she spoke on the phone. She softly nodded her head as if to assure him that everything was okay. "It's fine. Hey, did you call me earlier? I mean before you texted?"

"No… I'm on the road on the way to a studio. I only sent you a text. Why?"

Hearing his response, she mouthed the words 'not him' to Damien. "Nothing. Just curious… Alright, Matty. I'll talk to you soon. Bye."

When their call ended, Katherine searched for the missed call again and pressed the call button. She waited for a beat before she heard a busy tone on the other line. She wasn't familiar with the phone number, so she wasn't sure who to expect. She gave it another try but when the line was still busy the second time, she gave up.

"I can't get through." She put her phone back into her purse and sighed. Just in time, Ava came back and told them that everything was done. Katherine was told to come back at the same time that Damien was scheduled on Wednesday.

Mr. West also appeared with a small suitcase in hand. They bid each other farewell and once the couple left West Bespoke Tailor, they headed back to Damien's Range Rover.

Feeling the need to come clean to Katherine, he helped her up the passenger's seat and reached for her hand. When she met his stare with a small smile on her lips, he started, "Katherine, listen… About the Auction—"

"I'm confused. Isn't it just an auction? Why did you say it was a ball?" she interrupted when she remembered what he said back at Mr. West's shop.

"It's a social event. The ball always serves as an excuse for the attendees to flaunt what their bank accounts can afford. The auction is only part of the whole thing. The show actually starts as soon as the attendees step on the red carpet."

"Mm. I was saying… For the club event… I really want to go with you. But remember yesterday while I stepped out for a bit? I actually went to see—" Damien's phone buzzed in his pocket, jolting him from the conversation.

Taking out his phone from his pocket, he checked the caller ID and saw that it was Alianna. He casually canceled the phone call without second thoughts and continued where he left off, "I went to see the son of the owner of Central Harbor Restaurant."

Katherine glanced at the phone in his hand. She saw him cancel the call but she failed to see who called him. Dragging her eyes back to his, she probed, "You know the owner's son?" The phone in his hand rang once again and just like the first time, he canceled it—this time, he was growing annoyed by the interruptions.

"Y-Yeah… His name is Wallace White." Another call came in, pulling their attention to the screen and causing their eyes to narrow at the sight.

"You should answer that…" she suggested.

"It's Ali. I'll just call her again later." Not bothering to cancel the call for the third time, he was about to pocket his phone when he heard Katherine say, "You can tell me what you need to tell me later. What if it's an emergency?"

Damien eyed Katherine and an image of Nana flashed in his mind. He knew that he shouldn't ignore the calls especially since Alianna seemed so determined to reach him. Sighing, he pressed the green button on the screen and answered, "Ali?"

"Oh my god! How could you keep rejecting my calls?! Where are you? Are you still with Katherine right now?!" Alianna's voice sounded slightly panic-stricken and irritated. Damien could hear some noise from the other line but he couldn't make out the sounds.

"What's wrong? Why do you sound so agitated? And how did you know I'm with Katherine?" He shifted his gaze to Katherine's eyes and saw her raise a brow in confusion, in which he answered with a small shrug.

"You don't know what's happening? Hasn't Markus called you yet? You're all over the internet! Everywhere!"

"Wait—slow down, Ali. I'm not following. What do you mean?" He hurriedly pressed the loudspeaker on his phone screen so they could listen together.

A long sigh was heard from the other line as Alianna tried to calm herself down. "There are several articles circulating everywhere with pictures of you and Katherine. There are a lot of speculations too. You two have become the talk of the town and I'm not liking what I'm reading here. Go and search your names online."

Katherine and Damien looked at each other, totally clueless about what was going on. He quickly searched their names on an online search engine with Alianna still on the call and found dozens of articles about them, along with the pictures that were taken just a couple of hours ago. 

"That's… wow, whoever they are… they're fast…" Katherine remarked.

"Ali, I'll call you later." Damien ended the call without waiting for a response and turned to Katherine, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." The headlines were different in each article but what Katherine was concerned about was those that talked about Crown Resort Group's bidding project, implicating Damien's company and Young Corporation. "But… are you?" she probed.

"This is nothing." He checked his phone again and received a notification about an emergency meeting with Crown Resort Group's board in an hour. "Call your grandfather. He may want to speak to you. I'll drop you off wherever he is."

Katherine caught sight of the notification on his phone and got worried. "The Board requested a meeting?"

"Don't worry… This is just child's play." Seeing the concern written all over her face, he gently brushed his thumb on her cheek and pressed a kiss on her forehead before he reassured her, "Who am I if I can't protect you?"

The rhetorical question was simple yet it made her feel like there was a gush of warm stream spiraling in her stomach.