Elara's POV

As soon as I turned around, I was taken aback.

But it wasn't because of how handsome the stranger was... Though he truly was breathtaking, but it was because of something else... His familiarity.

I had seen him before, I knew him from somewhere... But I just couldn't remember where.

But I couldn't just keep staring at his face.

I shook my head and cleared my throat, before planting a small smile on my face. "Em... Sorry, thank you for watching my kids."

He didn't respond.

The handsome stranger just stared at my face... His eyes had a hint of disappointment in them as he stared.

My smile became wry. His silence just made it all awkward.

"Em..." I began awkwardly taking a step back, while reaching for my kid's hands. "I... I will be leaving now..."

That was when he spoke.

"So you don't recognize me?"

My feet froze, and then I stopped to stare at his face.

"Huh? Am I supposed to?"

Sure, his face seemed familiar, but, this was an airport. A high-end one that cost me so bloody much to book a ticket for.

I could have seen him on the news or in a magazine. He had the aura of a rich person... I wouldn't be surprised if he were exactly that.

So no, I didn't recognize him.

Or...

My brows wrinkled in confusion, my brain still trying to remember where we could have met before. "I'm sorry, but have we met before?" I asked, leaning a bit towards him, before blinking my eyes.

Even if I've met him, which I doubted that I did, I didn't want to remember.

No... I didn't wish to remember.

That was my plan for the next few weeks, I would be staying in this country.

I didn't wish to bump into anyone from my past. I wanted no one to know that I had returned. I only had bad memories of this place.

I just wanted to do my job and leave this bloody country.

So... Maybe it was best I didn't recognize him.

We stared at each other for almost a minute. It was mostly the handsome stranger doing the staring, I was just surprised as to why he was staring at me with such intensity.

I was beginning to get uncomfortable, and was about to say something about it when the man by his side, whom I had only just noticed, leaned towards him and whispered.

"Boss, our flight is about to leave. We need to get going."

Flight?

It was just a whisper but I heard him. I had quite sensitive ears.

It meant that the stranger was leaving.

Good.

That was good.

At least I wouldn't see him again.

Hopefully, the rest of the time I have here will go smoothly.

"Thank you again," I spoke, appreciating him with a curt bow. Since he refused to say anything, there was no need for me to keep thinking. I turned towards my kids... Who for the first time in a long time, stayed quiet for more than five minutes.

And when I said kids, I meant the second one, Jake.

"Leo, Jake... Let's go..." I said and was about leaving, when a deep cool voice flowed into my eyes.

"What's your name?" He asked, his tone sounding rough towards the end.

That voice...

It sounded so damn familiar.

It did something strange to my body that I didn't have time to think about when he spoke again.

"I asked for your name. "

He repeated.

I raised a brow at him.

"My name?"

I thought he said he knew me.

Well... How could he know me and not know my name?

This was getting, weird.

I just wanted to leave with my kids at the apartment I had rented, an almost an hour drive from her.

Plus, he had a flight to catch too, so...

"Er... Elara." I answered him. I let go of the hand holding Leo and stretched it towards him. "Elara Reyes."

The handsome stranger's eyes dropped down to my hand, the skin around his forehead a bit wrinkled, but then he looked up at me and smiled.

He raised his hand and held mine in a firm shake.

I felt a shiver run down through my body from my hands the moment our hands touched.

A corner of his lips rose in a smirk. "I'm glad we met again Elara Reyes... This time, I won't let you go that easily."

Let me...go?

We locked eyes... There was something there. Something other than familiarity, or... Or maybe amusement.

It was this strange emotion I couldn't name.

It gave me shivers.

Actually, everything about this handsome stranger gave me shivers.

From his face, down to his voice.

I subconsciously got the feeling to avoid him.

I forced a small smile on my lips and tried to retract my hand...

My heart drummed twice as fast when he held it tighter, still staring at me.

I turned to the man beside him, silently begging him for help with my eyes.

I didn't want to be rude. The man seemed like a big shot. My company wouldn't be able to survive it if I offended another big shot.

But the man didn't even bother to look into my eyes. His eyes were fixed on our joined hands; they were slightly dilated, and there was an expression of shock on his face.

'Come on... Your boss hadn't shaken someone so tightly before?'

I was just about to speak, giving up on the peace version of myself I had decided to be tjis morning before the flight, when suddenly... The speakers sounded an announcement.

"Last flight to California for the day..."

Cali... That's where he was headed, right?

It was just a guess... But I turned out to be correct.

The man only just smirked, released my hand, and walked away.

"Weirdo." I snorted, shaking my hand as though trying to get off the feeling of touch off them.

After shaking the feeling off, I turned to the kids.

"Let's go kids."

Jake had no problem, he grabbed my hand and nodded. While Leo... Leo just stared in the direction the strange man had left, as though he was in a trance.

"Mummy... Aren't we leaving?" Jake complained after a minute.

But, Leo's eyes were still following the handsome... No, weird stranger.

It wasn't until I snapped my fingers in front of him that he looked away.

"Let's go," I repeated a lot more firmly this time.

Leo nodded and grabbed my hand.

This time, I was the one who turned around.

Those strange men were out of sight.

I could finally let out a sigh of relief.

'Hopefully... My kids and I would never meet him again.' I inwardly thought, a weird feeling in my chest.

I turned around again, holding both my children, and left the airport.

Jayden's POV

'Does she not know who I am? Or is she pretending?'

The question refused to leave my head throughout the entire ride from the airport.

I recognized her immediately. How could I not? For five bloody years, that woman had lived in the back of my mind like an unfinished sentence. The moment her face came into view... I knew.

Elara.

The woman who forced her way into my life for one reckless night... and disappeared before dawn.

She made me break the promise I made to Jane.

She made me break my celibacy.

And then she vanished as if nothing had happened.

Yet there she stood in front of me; smiling politely, thanking me for watching her kids, even stretching out her hand for a handshake...

As though she didn't remember what she did to me.

How dare she?

Who the fuck does she think I am to forget me so easily?

Or was it an act?

I leaned back against the airplane seat, staring out into the dark stretch of sky beyond the window. I tried closing my eyes, but it was useless.

Her face kept appearing.

And those kids.

Those two boys she held so naturally in her hands.

"Could she be married?" I muttered under my breath.

She had two children.

Was she married back then?

Was that why she ran?

Did she use me as some pathetic escape from a failing marriage?

The memory of that night replayed against my will. She had been crying. She was angry and broken. She talked about betrayal... about being hurt. She drank more than she should have.

Had she been fighting with her husband?

Did she need a distraction?

Did she use me to fill a void and then return to her comfortable life?

"Fuck."

The word left my mouth sharply, drawing a glance from a passing flight attendant.

I ignored it.

Anger surged through me... hot and humiliating.

How dare she use me as a substitute to fulfill her desires, then disappear, and now appear again with children in her hands?

Another thought crept in.

What if she knew who I was?

What if she had been sent by someone?

An enemy?

The idea sounded ridiculous... yet I couldn't find any other explanation for her behavior.

She occupied my mind completely, and the more I thought about her, the tighter my jaw became.

What irritated me most wasn't the possibility that she used me.

It was the thought of her belonging to someone else.

Of her having a husband.

Of her refusing to leave him.

No.

For five years, I had forced her memory out of my head. Buried it under work, responsibilities, silence.

But now she was back.

And she was disrupting everything again.

...

"Boss, you have a board meeting by six, a client meeting by four, and before all of that, you have to attend the..."

"Family gathering." I completed the words for him.

"I know." My father had made sure to pass the message across that it was unavoidable.

The plane had barely landed before Dion started listing my schedule, walking beside me as we exited the terminal.

I barely heard half of it, my mind was still focused on that woman.

I had already made a decision mid-flight.

She was like a ghost back then. I couldn't find a trace of her no matter how hard I searched.

But now I had something solid.

Her name.

Elara Reyes.

And two children.

I needed answers.

I needed to know what happened that night... and why she ran.

Maybe...

Maybe once I knew the truth, I could finally let her go.

"Boss," Dion spoke again carefully, adjusting his grip on the suitcase as we walked toward the car. "About the family gathering... the Bryes won't be the only family there."

I slowed slightly. "What?"

Who else could possibly be invited?

This was supposed to be simple...  eat, greet, leave.

My father insisted I show up first thing after returning. I had agreed only to get it over with.

But something in Dion's tone told me this wasn't simple.

He placed the suitcase in the trunk before opening the passenger door for me.

"I just received confirmation... Ms. Zia and her parents will be there too."

"Zia?"

Jane's best friend?

What would she be doing there?

Zia was the only woman I tolerated after Jane's death. She understood grief. She understood silence.

Because she loved Jane too.

"Yes, boss." Dion hesitated before continuing. "It's not just a gathering. They're... arranging your marriage."

"My what?"

The word left my mouth flat.

I had expected this.

Four months ago, I accidentally walked into my father's study and saw the draft agreement - signed by him and Zia's father.

A marriage alliance.

"Both families have agreed that you and Ms. Zia should get married," Dion finished quietly.

Zia was suitable.

Good background.

Respected family.

No scandal.

And I wasn't repulsed by her.

That was probably enough for them.

But it wasn't enough for me.

I climbed into the car, rubbing a hand across my face before Dion started the engine.

"Tell my father I'm not interested."

Dion looked at me through the rearview mirror.

"This wasn't the old master's idea."

I went still.

"What?"

He hesitated.

"It was Madam."

I closed my eyes.

Of course it was.

My father rarely interfered anymore. Once he realized I could handle the company, he stepped back.

But my mother...

She worried.

She thought I was lonely.

She thought Zia would fix that.

She probably convinced my father that this was for my own good.

The Ranviers were powerful. The alliance benefited everyone.

Everyone except me.

"It's alright," I said finally. "I'll deal with it."

Dion nodded and pulled the car onto the road.

Zia had waited patiently all these years. Despite knowing I had no intention of remarrying. Despite knowing I intended to stay alone.

I believed I could.

Until that night.

Until Elara.

Maybe...

Maybe letting her disappear was a mistake.

She used me.

And I never got an explanation.

My mind returned to the note she left that morning.

She said she had changed her mind.

Changed her mind about what?

As if there had been an agreement between us.

Then she vanished.

But...

Those twins.

A frown slowly formed on my face.

They couldn't be older than five.

Five years.

The timeline lined up too neatly.

My heartbeat slowed.

Could it be...?

No.

My eyes opened sharply.

She wouldn't.

Would she?

Either she was already pregnant when she slept with me...

Or she went back to someone else immediately after.

Both options irritated me equally.

I looked toward Dion, who was focused on the road.

"I need you to look into the woman we met earlier at New York's airport."

Dion blinked. "The woman with the twins?"

"Yes."

My voice hardened.

"Investigate her."

It might just be a coincidence.

But if she dared to carry my child... my children... and keep them hidden from me...

There was no way I was letting her walk away again.

"I want everything."

...

"Darling, what took you so long?" Zia stood up as soon as I walked in, a big smile on her face. She walked towards me, attempting to hug me.

An attempt... Because she knew I hated being touched.

I took a step back, my cold gaze sweeping over her. "You insist on calling me that," I said curtly, walking towards the chair opposite the one she had been sitting on.

I ignored her, but she didn't say anything. She never did