For a few seconds there was no talking.
The name hung in the room as if it were impossible.
Elena Laurent.
Damien turned to Noah.
Say that again.
Noah lowered the tablet slowly.
The anonymous account was registered under an identity associated with Elena Laurent.”
Damien’s face went cold.
“Impossible.
“I know it.” “No.” His voice cut.
Not impossible.
“Impossible.”
Noah didn’t argue.
For he knew.
Twenty years ago Elena Laurent was pronounced dead.
A death certificate existed.
A funeral.
A funeral.
A grave
The lot.
But now her name was back again.
Someone was using it to wipe out the Laurent family.
Aria studied Damien closely.
She had never seen him this way.
Not crazy.
Uncontrolled.
Just.
Lost.
Damien.
He said nothing.
His eyes never left the tablet.
“Damien.” ”
He stared at her this time.
For a second she saw something beyond the image of the billionaire.
A little boy who had lost his mother.
A son who had spent years believing a painful story.
“And your mother?”
It was a nice question.
But it was weighty.
Damien looked away.
I was ten years old.”
His voice was softer.
My father said, “There’s been an accident.
He halted.
“She had been visiting a friend of the family and was driving home.
Aria listened in silence.
The car went off the road.”
He swallowed.
I remember, I wait for her.
The memory seemed painful even two decades later.
“I remember my father coming home.
A short pause.
“At first he said nothing.
Damien’s fingers clenched.
“Then he said she was dead.”
Aria’s heart melted in spite of it all.
For no matter what secrets there were…
A child had lost its mother.
You believed that?”
Damien smiled without humor.
“I was ten.
The answer was easy.
And heartbreaking.
I believed what my father told me.”
Noah put the tablet on the table.
“There’s something else, too.
Damien glanced at him.
What?” “The account did not just send the documents.”
Noah hesitated.
It sent a message.
Aria’s stomach twisted.
What message?”
Noah turned to look at Damien.
This was for you.
Damien’s face remained unreadable.
Read it.
Noah read the message.
The words came up on the screen.
You kept the truth away from me.
Now I will bring it back to the surface.”
Quiet.
and then there was another line.
““Your wife should know why she was picked.”
Aria was cold.
Again.
Same word.
Selected.
Damien looked at her.
“”Why does everyone always say that?
He did not answer.
Because he didn’t know.
Or because he didn’t want to have to tell her.
She didn’t know anymore.
Damien.
His eyes found hers.
“What?
Was I the chosen one?”
The question was straightforward.
But it came with seven years of doubt.
He was quiet for too long.
And that hurt worse than any of the answers.
Aria nodded slowly.
“I understand.” “Aria—” “No.”
She lifted her hand.
“I don’t need some explanation that’s years too late.”
She turned around.
But Damien spoke before she could go.
“You weren’t a transaction.”
She halted.
His voice was firm.
You were never a deal.”
She looked back slowly.
What was I, then?
Damien glanced at her.
And just this once…
He had no perfect answer.
You were someone I wanted to get to know.”
It was true and it surprised her.
But that was not enough.
Not anymore.
“To want to know someone and to know someone are two different things.
She turned and went on.
Damien didn’t stop her this time.
That evening Damien returned to Laurent Holdings by himself.
He had canceled all his meetings.
Ignoring all calls.
Only one question was in his mind.
How’s his dead mother involved in this?
He went into the old family records.
A place he had stayed away from for years.
The room smelled of old paper, of lost memories.
His father’s rule had been plain enough.
No one entered without permission.
Him especially.
But tonight rules didn’t matter.
He went through old files.
Corporate files.
Family Papers.
Images.
Until he found a drawer that was locked.
The same drawer he’d been told never to open as a child.
He stared at that.
They told him twenty years ago there was nothing in it.
He knew better, now.
He broke the lock.
Inside lay one envelope.
His name was engraved on it.
Damien.
His breath slowed down.
The handwriting was recognizable.
Too close.
His mother’s writing.
Impossible.
He opened it, and his hands shook a little.
Within was a letter.
One page.
Damien,
If you are reading this you went wrong.
One thing I want you to understand before anyone else tells you their version of the truth.
I didn’t leave you.
I was removed from you.
Damien halted.
The room seemed smaller all at once.
He went on reading.
Your father cared more about protecting the Laurent name than he did his family.
But the one who brought us down was not one from outside this family.
It was somebody we trusted.
Damien’s eyes flickered faster.
Then he got to the last paragraph.
The words almost stopped his heart.
The girl you married is in this from the beginning.
Her father knows that it is true.
And if Damien finds this letter ever, that means they found Aria too.
The letter slipped a little from his hand.
Aria.
His wife!
His near-ex-wife.
The woman he thought he was losing because of his own mistakes.
But now….
She was tied to the darkest secret his family kept secret.
He heard a noise behind him.
He turned about.
The door to the archive was ajar.
Somebody stood outside in the darkness.
A woman’s voice whispered.
“Still searching for answers after all these years?
Damien froze up.
He knew that voice.
He’d only heard it in childhood memories.
The voice he thought he’d never hear again for twenty years.
Mom?
The figure moved into the light.
And for the first time in twenty years..
.
Elena Laurent glanced at her son.
“Hello, Damien.”
Damien made no move.
And he couldn’t have.
His mind refused to believe what he was seeing.
Every fiber of his being was screaming that this was impossible.
His mother was dead.
He’d been at her funeral.
He had seen his father stand beside her grave.
For twenty years he had carried the memory of a woman who would never again walk through a door.
And yet she was standing there, before him.
Alive.
Older.
Other.
But unmistakably her.
Mother…
The word was like a question.
Elena’s face dissolved.
For a moment she wasn’t the mysterious person who’d leaked the information.
Not someone with a secret in her family.
She was just a mother looking at the son she had lost.
“”You got big.”
Damien squinted.
Was that all she had to say?
After twenty years?
you grow up?”
His voice broke in disbelief.
You say that?”
Elena stepped forward slowly.
“”I know you’re angry.
Mad?
He gave a bitter laugh.
“You think I’m crazy?”
Finally he lost control.
I buried you.”
The archive was filled with the pain in his voice.
“I was ten years old when I watched everyone tell me you were gone.
Elena gazed down.
I know.
“No,” said Damien shaking his head.
You have no idea.
His hands clenched.
You have no idea how it was.
The room fell silent.
“”You don’t know what it’s like to wake up every day knowing I’d never hear your voice again.”
Elena averted her gaze.
Her eyes welled with tears.
I thought about you every day.
So why didn’t you come back?
There were twenty years of pain in that question.
No rage.
Pain.
“Why?”
Elena had trouble answering.
““Because I couldn’t.”
Damien looked at her.
‘Couldn’t?” You don’t understand.
“Then explain.”
She looked at him.
For the moment I got back, you’d have been in danger.”
Damien stopped.
“What does that mean?
Elena moved forward.
The people who wanted me out were still watching.
Who?
She glanced at the door.
Then at him again.
The very same people who are watching you now.
There was a cold silence.
Damien considered the photographs that had been leaked.
The messages that were anonymous.
The assault on Aria.
All wrapped up.
“Did you send the messages?
Elena didn’t dispute that.
“Yes.
His expression changed.
“Why?” Because there was no other way to warn you.
“You should have called me.
“No.” Her answer was instant.
I just couldn’t risk it.”
Damien gave a soft laugh.
Twenty years and you couldn’t trust yourself to make one phone call?
Elena looked hurt.
“I saw you from afar.
That’s supposed to make me feel better?
“None.” She admitted.
It was supposed to keep you alive.
At the Laurent mansion, Aria was still awake.
Well past midnight.
She was unable to sleep.
No matter how many times she closed her eyes, she saw Damien’s face when Noah said Elena.
That wasn’t the face of a man with a secret.
It was the face of a man whose world had fallen apart.
Her phone was at her side.
She had not received any other messages.
No phone calls.
Nothing.
But the silence was worse.
She hated that she was concerned for him.
After all…
And she was worried.
Her reverie was broken by a knock.
She was expecting Harold.
But Damien was just standing outside the door.
Neither of them spoke for a time.
You should be in bed.” ““You should, too.”
A moment of silence.
Then he said, I found her.
Aria frowned.
Who?
He looked at her.
My mother.
She drew a breath.
“What?” She’s alive.”
The words seemed impossible.
Aria looked at him.
“Damien…” “I know what that sounds like.” No, I mean…
She struggled for words.
““How?” “I still don’t know it all.
“ ” He looked tired.
But one thing I know.
“What?” She knew you were here.
Silence fell over the room.
Aria got up slowly.
“”What do you mean?”
Damien looked away.
She left a letter ,’A letter?’ It said, your dad.
Her expression shifted.
“‘My father?’
He nodded.
“Your family knows the truth,” she said.
Aria felt the ground lurch beneath her.
“No.” Damien looked at her.
You knew something?”
She shook her head right away.
““No.” She paused.
Because suddenly a memory came back.
Something she hadn’t considered in years.
A conversation she had overheard at nineteen.
Her father arguing on the phone to somebody.
The deal was done years ago.
Now you cannot change the terms.
She thought it was business at the time.
Now…
She didn’t know.
Aria?
She looked over at Damien.
I don’t know
His frankness took him aback.
“But I guess…”
She swallowed….I think my father kept things from me, too.
For the first time in days they were on the same side of an argument.
Not as man and wife.
Not like foes.
Like two people looking for answers
The next morning Aria got a call.
On the screen was her father’s name.
Richard Vale.
She glanced at it.
Damien saw it.
“Your father?”
She nodded.
““I haven’t spoken to him since it happened.” “Answer it.
She paused.
Then accepted.” “Hi Daddy.
There was a long silence.
Then Richard said: Aria.”
His voice was older than she remembered.
We need to talk.
Her fingers held tight to the phone.
“”About what?”
Another pause.
Then: [image]
“About the reason you married Damien Laurent.
The room fell silent.
Damien stared at her.
She said nothing.
Richard continued.
“Because the facts are…
His voice dropped.
“You were never supposed to find out like this.”
Aria’s heart beat fast.
“What are you talking about?
I want you to come home.” “Why?”
A terrible silence.
Then spoke her father.
I had a promise to the Laurent family twenty years ago, you and your mother.”
Aria stopped breathing.
My mother?”
Damien’s expression shifted.
Richard went on.
“And that promise is why you married Damien Laurent.”
The call was made.
Aria slowly put down the phone.
She said nothing, neither did Damien.
They both understood for the moment.
They met a long way before their marriage.
And someone had spent twenty years making sure they never found out why.