i sat down heavily in one of her dining chairs, her hands shaking slightly. "There’s only one person I can think of. Only one person who would know these are my favorite flowers. Who would have the money to send arrangents like this. Who might want to..."
She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
"Who, Mama?" Aria pressed gently.
i looked up at her daughter....her beautiful, brilliant daughter who knew nothing about the man who’d fathered her. Who’d been protected from that knowledge for twenty-five years.
"Your father," i said quietly. "Your biological father."
The silence in the apartnt was absolute.
"My father?" Aria repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. "But you said that it was a mistake, a brief relationship that didn’t work out....."
"I lied." i felt tears prick at her eyes. "I’m sorry, baby. I lied to protect you. To protect both of us."
Damien’s expression had gone completely neutral....the look he got when he was processing information and calculating responses. "I think you should tell her."
i nodded miserably. "His na is Alexander. No relation. And twenty-five years ago, he was....still is, I suppose.....one of the most powerful n in international business. Real estate developnt, mostly. Projects across Asia, so in Europe. Connections that go very deep, very high."
"And you ran from him," Damien said, still in that neutral voice. "That’s why you disappeared when Aria was an infant. Why you’ve been so careful about keeping a low profile. You’ve been hiding from him all these years."
"Yes." i’s voice broke. "He was... is... intense. Possessive. When I t him, I thought his intensity was love. S he looked at Aria. I thought his possessiveness was protection. But it beca suffocating. He needed to control everything about my life....where I went, who I spoke to, what I thought. And when I got pregnant, it got worse. He was obsessed with the idea of having an heir, having soone to carry on his legacy."
Aria sank into a chair, her face pale. "So you ran."
"When you were two months old. I took you and disappeared in the middle of the night. Changed our nas, moved to New York, built a completely new life and that was when i t your father... and he accepted you as his daughter and he loved you." i looked at her hands. "I’ve been terrified for twenty-five years that he would find us. That he would try to take you away from ."
"And you think he’s found you now," Damien said. "That these flowers are his way of announcing that he knows where you are."
"White lilies and red roses were always his gifts to . His signature. I’d know these arrangents anywhere." i’s voice shook. "He’s found us. After all these years, he’s found us."
Aria stood up abruptly and moved to the window, staring out at Chinatown’s evening bustle. Damien followed, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"We’ll handle this," he said quietly. "Whatever happens, you’re protected."
"Protected how?" Aria turned to face him, her expression a mixture of fear and anger. "If this man is as powerful as my mother says, if he’s been looking for us for twenty-five years...."
"Then he’s about to learn that you’re under my protection now. And that carries weight." Damien’s voice was steel. "I’ll have Marcus investigate Alexander imdiately. Find out everything about him....his current location, his business interests, his connections, his vulnerabilities. We’ll know more about him than he knows about himself."
"But what does he want?" Aria asked, her voice anguished. "Why now, after all this ti?"
i stood and moved to her daughter, taking her hand despite the fear coursing through her. "I don’t know, baby. Maybe he’s always been looking and only just found us. Maybe sothing changed in his life that made him decide to reach out. Maybe....." She couldn’t finish.
"Maybe he wants to et his daughter," Damien finished grimly. "After twenty-five years of not knowing her, he’s found her. And n like that....n used to getting what they want.....don’t take no for an answer easily."
The three of them stood in the small apartnt, surrounded by the flowers that had transford from beautiful gifts to ominous warnings.
i looked at the white lilies and red roses and felt the sa fear she’d felt twenty-five years ago when she’d run in the middle of the night with an infant in her arms.
Alexander had found them.
Despite all her efforts to stay hidden for twenty five years.
*******
LATER THAT NIGHT - AFTER DAMIEN AND ARIA LEFT
i sat alone in her apartnt, staring at the flowers. Damien had wanted to take them, to have them analyzed or destroyed or sothing, but i had insisted on keeping them.
She needed to look at them. Needed to rember why she’d run all those years ago.
Her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number: The flowers are just the beginning. We have so much to discuss, i. Twenty-five years is a long ti to be apart.
i’s hands shook as she read the ssage. She should delete it, block the number, call Damien’s security team.
But she found herself typing back instead: Leave us alone. Please. Whatever you want, whatever you think you’re owed.....just leave us alone.
The response ca imdiately: I want to et her. I want to et our daughter. Is that so unreasonable? A father wanting to know his child?
You gave up that right when you tried to control every aspect of my life. When you made feel like I was drowning. When you made it clear that my only value was as a vessel for your heir.
I was young. Intense. I’ve changed, i. Twenty-five years changes a person.
Has it changed you enough to respect my wishes? To leave Aria alone if I ask you to?
A longer pause this ti. Then: No. I’ve spent twenty-five years looking for you. For her. I’m not walking away now. But I’m not the man I was, i. I’m not going to force anything. I just want a chance. One eting. Let her decide if she wants to know .
And if she doesn’t?
Then I’ll disappear again. I promise. One eting. That’s all I’m asking.
i stared at the ssage, her heart pounding. Part of her wanted to refuse outright, to protect Aria from Alexander the way she’d been protecting her for twenty-five years.
But another part....a tired part that had been running and hiding for so long....wondered if it was ti to stop.
Aria was an adult now. Strong, independent, capable of making her own decisions. Maybe she deserved the chance to et her biological father, to decide for herself whether she wanted him in her life.
Or maybe that was exactly what Alexander wanted i to think.
I need ti, i typed. Ti to think. Ti to talk to Aria about this properly. Don’t contact again until I reach out to you. If you truly respect , if you truly want a chance, you’ll give that.
You have one week, ca the response. One week to think, to talk to Aria, to decide. After that, I’ll be in New York. And we’ll have this conversation face to face, whether you’re ready or not.
i deleted the ssages with shaking hands and set her phone down.
Alexander was coming to New York.
In one week, her carefully constructed life of safety and anonymity would end.
And Aria...her brilliant, strong, beautiful daughter....would et the man she had tried so hard to keep her safe from.
i looked at the flowers again and felt tears stream down her face.
She’d run twenty-five years ago to protect Aria.
But now she wondered if running had been enough.
Or if the past she’d tried so desperately to escape was finally catching up to them both.
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