She had to tell Aria. Couldn’t keep this secret any longer. Had been selfish and cowardly in hoping the situation would resolve itself, would sohow go away without requiring her to have the conversation she’d been dreading for twenty-five years.
But the timing was terrible. Aria was settling into her position at the hospital, was happier than i had ever seen her. Her relationship with Damien was strong and loving and finally built on honesty after everything they’d been through.
Everything was finally good. Finally stable.
And now this.
i picked up her phone and dialed Aria’s number. She needed to hear her daughter’s voice, needed to gauge her mood, needed to figure out the right way to begin the most difficult conversation of both their lives.
The phone rang four tis before going to voicemail.
"You’ve reached Aria Chen. Please leave a ssage."
i took a breath. "Baby, it’s . When you have a chance, could you co by the apartnt weekend? I.....there are so things I need to talk to you about. Important things." She paused, trying to keep her voice steady. "I love you. Call when you can."
She ended the call and looked around her apartnt. Six bouquets of flowers filled every available surface, their combined fragrance almost overwhelming in the small space. Beautiful and ominous and impossible to ignore.
Like the truth she’d been hiding for twenty-five years.
Like the man who’d fathered her daughter and spent two decades searching for them both.
i walked to her bedroom and opened the drawer where she’d been storing the cards. She spread them out on her bed and read through them all again, looking for evidence of manipulation, looking for signs of the controlling man she’d fled from.
She found intensity....that was undeniable. She found determination and single-mindedness that could be read as obsessive. She found a man who’d spent twenty-five years searching for a child he’d known for two months.
But she also found sothing she hadn’t expected. Sothing that genuinely surprised her.
Humility.
Acknowledgnt of his failures. Recognition that she’d had good reasons to run. Acceptance of responsibility for who he’d been.
Whether that represented genuine change or simply better manipulation, she couldn’t say.
But she knew one thing with absolute certainty: the choice about whether to et Alexander didn’t belong to her anymore.
It belonged to Aria.
And i had spent too many years making decisions for her daughter based on her own fear.
*****
Five Days Later
i was about to call Aria to remind her to co over to see her this weekend when her phone buzzed with a ssage from the unknown number.
No greeting this ti. No flowers referenced. Just four words that made i’s blood run cold:
I’ve seen her, i.
i’s fingers flew across the screen: What do you an you’ve seen her?
Where?
The response ca with a photograph attached.
i opened it with shaking hands.
It was Aria. Walking out of tropolitan General Hospital, her white coat still on, her hair pulled back, her expression bright and animated as she spoke to a colleague beside her. The photo was taken from a distance, clearly without Aria’s knowledge.
And written below it: She’s beautiful. She looks like both of us. I’ve been watching her for three days, i. Learning her routine. Understanding who she’s beco. She’s extraordinary. You raised soone extraordinary.
i’s heart stopped.
He’d been watching Aria. Following her. Photographing her without her knowledge.
For three days.
This was no longer about flowers and nostalgic notes. This was surveillance.
This was the behavior of soone who didn’t respect boundaries the way he claid. This was the possessive, controlling Alexander she rembered....the one she’d run from....showing his true face beneath the carefully constructed surface of reford humility.
i’s hands were shaking so badly she could barely type, but she managed: Stay away from her.
Don’t go near her again. I’m calling her security team right now.
His response was imdiate: I ant no harm. I just needed to see her.
To know she was real. I won’t approach her without your permission,
i. I promise.
Your promises an nothing to right now, i typed back. You’re surveilling my daughter without her knowledge. That’s not the behavior of a changed man.
I know how it looks. I’m sorry. But i....please don’t call security on . Just et with first. Let explain in person. Give twenty-four hours.
i didn’t respond. Set her phone down and imdiately dialed aria’s number, but she didn’t pick up and fear griped i. ’’What if he had gotten to her already? Then she rembered that Damien had given her the number of is head of security. She dialed the number.
"Marcus," she said when Damien’s head of security answered. "This is i....Aria’s mother. I have been trying to call Aria, But she is not picking.
I need to tell you sothing. Sothing important that I should have told you several days ago."
Her voice was steady. Calr than she felt.
Because the ti for protecting everyone from difficult truths was over.
Alexander was in New York. He’d been watching Aria for three days. And whatever his intentions.....whether genuinely changed or dangerously obsessive...he represented a threat that the people who loved Aria needed to know about.
"Ms. Chen?" Marcus’s voice sharpened with professional alertness. "What’s happened? Is everything okay?"
"No," i said quietly. "Everything is not okay. And I need you to get Damien on the phone. And then I need to speak with Aria."
She looked at the photograph of her daughter walking out of the hospital....beautiful and unsuspecting and entirely unaware that she was being watched.
"There’s soone I need to tell you all about," i said. "Soone from the past. Soone who’s found us."
"Who?" Marcus asked.
i closed her eyes..
"Aria’s father," she said. "Her biological father. And he’s already in New York. And he has been watching Aria for days now,"
Reviews
All reviews (0)