His Camelia [Completed]

Chapter 34- Stefan Steel

December

Stefan hadn't slept well since he left her over a month ago. He was restless, irritable and angry.
No amount of weight lifting could ease the knots in his neck and shoulders. It was only a empty distraction to ease fuel his anger.

He stared out into the city lost in thought vaguely listening to the classical music in the background all alone in his penthouse.  Observing the comings and goings of pedestrians moving about their business and the thousands of cars that've passed by, Stefan wondered if anything would be ever entertaining enough to discourage his restless and lonely mood.

Finding Nathan Diam was becoming a tiresome mission after spending weeks searching for his whereabouts. Even the bounty hunters he hired over a month ago couldn't find the bastard.

The man was more of a phantom than a real life person.  It was close to impossible to catch the slithering snake.  Whenever Stefan caught a whiff of a lead and followed it, he found left over clues–pictures of Camelia, unknown serial numbers, and maps.  The maps revealed no marked points.  They tried to decode the numbers and those too led to nothing. The pictures were scanned for fingerprints and collected in a envelope Stefan kept for himself. 

After Liam helped him obtain more information it showed Nathan Diam did in fact have a child, a son, that grew up in England with his mother.  As Stefan had guessed, Jason managed to elude the police that day at the mall with help from his own people.   The security camera footage he scanned captured everything. 

After a while, Stefan stopped searching for the two of them, leaving the work to the bounty hunters and hired even more operatives to continue tracking them down.  Neglecting his businesses for so long already was proving quite difficult.  He re-established his position as a powerful businessman and retaking control of his companies.

He was officially Stefan Steel again.

He felt no different like he expected. Nothing changed now that he grasped his destiny, his identity, once again. Perhaps, things would never change for him, nothing would be the same.

However, Stefan missed one aspect of being Kent and it was Camelia. It was a constant ache living inside him, her absence. It was especially present when he was alone. He was used to it but sometimes it felt like the loneliness was eating him up.

After he left, he assured himself he was doing the right thing. He wasn't the man for the job–his judgment clouded.  He was angry with himself for not acting more professional. She'd been nearly kidnapped twice because of his reckless emotions.  The anger just beneath the surface bristled the hairs on his neck every time he thought of the what if's.

He felt ashamed leaving her to think the worst of him.  His lack of effort allowed her to conclude the worst. If only he never said he would lie all over again. If only he explained his fears, his internal struggle of losing her too. It didn't come to light until he remembered the nightmare–the vivid, bloody, nightmare of her in his arms dying. 

Forever engraved in his brain. 

Images of his dead parents smiling faces swam before him. His grandfather's gentle eyes, the skin wrinkling around the corners. In the final moments, staring at Camelia's red rimmed eyes did he finally wake up remembering how misfortune followed him wherever he went.  In those last moments, Stefan trembled with the sudden chill that entered his veins.  He hid it from her, that terror that shadowed him, ashamed to face the the knowledge that forced him to leave her.