Aria's POV 

I woke up with a headache that was as though somebody was knocking in my skull.

Damon.

The stranger from last night.

All came back to my head. The alcohol, the dancing, and then the manner in which I lose myself. I awoke in alarm and sat up. I didn't even look at him again. I simply got dressed, picked my bag on the floor and hurried out of the room, out of the club.

The moment I arrived to the street I stopped a cab.

"Drive me to this address,"I said to the driver.

The ride felt long. All the time my hands were trembling. I did not know whether it was shame, heartbreak or the hangover.

As I reached aunt's place, I silently walked in but she was already in the living room. As soon as she saw me, her eyes were opened.

"Aria? What happened to you? Why do you look like this?" she asked, rushing toward me.

I couldn't answer. I simply stood and stared at her. My aunt held my shoulders.

"Talk to me. Was there anything wrong at the dinner?"

I swallowed hard. "Aunt... the groom... the man Selene is marrying... it is Caleb."

Her eyes widened even more. "What?"

I broke down. All my tears that I had kept since the night before broke out. She took me to the couch where she sat next to me.

"Talk to me baby, tell me what happened ," she said.

So I did.

"I demanded an explanation," I said wiping a tear. "I called him, I texted him, I went to his office, I got kicked out, demanded to know why he ghosted me. He claimed that I was the one who refused to follow him. He said he owed me nothing. He acted like I left him!"

My aunt squeezed my hand.

I continued. "Selene and Helena joined him. Even my father. They all charged me with being jealous, and that I desired to keep Caleb to myself. And like I did not mean anything. I left. I couldn't stay there. I attended a club, and encountered this man-" 

My aunt drew me closer to her. I cried so much my chest hurt. After some time, when my tears subsided, she rubbed my hair.

"And the one-night stand?" she questioned, not judging , not questioning, merely worrying.

I rubbed  my hands over my face. "I regret it. I do not even know how I allowed myself to do it. I was just... hurting. I didn't care anymore. I did not want to remember anything."

"It's okay," she whispered. "You're human. You were hurting. You made a mistake. You do not have to hate  yourself for that." 

I said nothing because  I was somehow embarrassed. The other part  was angry with Caleb. Angry at myself. Angry at everything.

I said, "I had never thought Caleb would do this to me. Not him. Not like this. And Selene and Helena, they knew I dated Caleb!" 

"Then let him go," my aunt said. "Move on. Make a person so powerful and successful that he will know that he has lost something precious. It is you who should not be ashamed. They should."

I wiped my face. "Thank you, Auntie."

She smiled at me and stood up. "Good. Now take a bath and rest. You need it."

My phone was about to buzz me to go to my room. I checked the screen. It was an email.

I found myself with a wide eye after reading it.

"What is it?" my aunt asked.

I said to myself, "they... they gave me a job. A  company I applied to. I did not expect them to choose me. I have applied because the description sounded easy and seemed to me that I did not even need to grace the interview in order to be hired." 

"What job?"

"CEO's secretary."

A smile was on my aunt's face. "Then go! Aria, you do not know where this may go."

I nodded reluctantly but I did not agree. It may have  be a glitch  in the system. 

I took a bath, dressed well and tied  up my hair. When I was prepared I gave the cab driver the address.

It was a large and contemporary structure, all glass. I felt small and odd when I entered it, but I forced myself through the nerves. A young man, well, older than I, was standing in the lobby. 

When he saw me, he froze.

His eyes were wide  and he came nearer. "Liana?"

I blinked. "No... I'm Aria."

He blushed at once. "I apologize, miss."

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say.

"I'm sorry miss," he said, "welcome to the company. I'm Daniel. Your employment has already been authorized by the CEO. I will give you the tour and tell you what you are to do." 

He continued to refer to the name of the CEO- Damon as he spoke.

Damon.

I tightened my stomach when I heard it. It couldn't be. There was no way.

Daniel led me to a private elevator which stopped in front of a big office. My small office was linked to a bigger one via a glass door.

"This is your desk," he said. And that, he indicated, " and that is the office of the CEO. You will be working hand in hand with him."

I nodded although my heart was racing too hard.

Daniel went to the office of the CEO and sat in a manner that showed  he was waiting. I saw him looking through the glass at me over and over again. He appeared bewildered and horrified, the same  he appeared when he said Liana.

Why then did he appear to be shocked at seeing me?

I tried to ignore it. I sat at my desk, and looked as though I were reading the big book on my desk.

Then the office door opened.

I looked up.

A man walked in first. Then there came in another man behind him.

I froze.

It was him.

Damon.

The Damon from last night. The man I slept with.

My one-night stand was with a man who was my new boss.

The CEO.

Damon's POV 

I was sitting behind my desk and looking at the file before me, but I could not make sense of any words. My head had been in the same rut over years- Liana. My girlfriend that disappeared after that accident. No one, not my girlfriend, thought that she was alive.

Daniel was standing opposite me, crossing his arms, and looking at me with that wearied expression which he had when this subject was brought up.

"Any update?" I requested him the third time that morning.

He sighed. "We are still searching, Damon... however, as I have said, I think you know my honest opinion. It's been years. No sighting of camera, no hospital record, no travel record. Nothing. I believe that you need to come to terms with the reality that you keep denying."

I looked up at him sharply. "Don't say it."

"Why not?" Daniel shot back. "She had had a terrible accident. They never found her body. Everybody thought that she drowned in the river. Damon, maybe she really-"

"She's alive." I cut him off, my voice steady. "I know she is. Dead people don't disappear. Dead people are found. Had she died, somebody would have discovered something, anything. But no one did."

Daniel rubbed his forehead. "Or they didn't because.." 

"Daniel." I sat back in my chair and stared him right in the eye. "Keep looking."

He let out another sigh. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"Probably," I muttered.

He opened his mouth to protest once more, when my phone started to ring. The name of my sister appeared on the screen.

I groaned. "Here we go."

I picked up. "Hello..." 

"Damon!" she snapped. "Do you know what time it is? You are nearly late to dinner with Caleb and his fiancee!" 

I closed my eyes. "I'm not late. I'm almost late and by the way I do not think the words almost late should be placed side by side in a sentence. It makes no sense."

"It makes sense, every sense! Get in your car right now! And do not go here with your freshly rolled out of office appearance. Look like an uncle! Not a CEO!"

"I'm literally in my office. I have to look like a CEO!"

"Exactly! Move! Head home and change from your suit! You know what, just come like that." 

She hung up without my response.

Daniel snorted. "You're dead."

"Yes, yes," I said to him, and took my keys. "Call me as soon as you get any information on Liana. And don't stop looking."

He threw his hands up. "I already said you're crazy!"

I ignored him and left.

When I got to the house of my sister, she was already at the door with her arms crossed across her chest. 

"Do you enjoy stressing me?" she asked.

"I'm here arent I? ," I said, "and I'm not almost late at all." 

She grinned and rolled her eyes , hugged my arm and walked me in. Caleb was seated beside a young lady, his fiancee, apparently. Pretty girl. Polite smile. Looked nervous.

"Uncle Damon, so glad to see you. " Caleb said. "This is Selene, my wife-to-be."

"Nice to meet you," I said with a nod.

Selene smiled too brightly. "Nice to meet you too, sir."

We sat for dinner. My sister continued to boast about Caleb and his new CEO  status, their upcoming marriage and that Selene was the best girl to marry him. I made an attempt to listen, but my thoughts went back to what Daniel said.

Move on.

Accept the truth.

Liana is gone.

I clenched my jaw. No. She wasn't. I would feel it if she was gone. I always believed that.

Midway into dinner, my phone was buzzing. I anticipated it to be Daniel whining yet again. Rather, I received a message of one of my guards.

Boss, we found Liana.

My heart stopped.

I opened the picture which he had sent, and stood still.

It was her.

She was standing in front of one of my clubs. From the cab behind it, it looked like  she had just gotten out of a cab.

I shot to my feet. "I got to go." 

"Damon!" my sister snapped. "And where do you think you are going! We are still eating!"

"I have an emergency," I said hastily. "I need to leave."

"Emergency? What kind..."

"I'll explain later."

I didn't wait for her reply. I left the house and was literally running to my car.

As soon as I entered it, I called the guard.

"Is it true?" I demanded. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir. About five minutes ago she came in. She's drunk. I think she's alone."

I tightened my hands on the steering wheel. "Don't let her leave. In fact, clear the club."

"Yes, sir. I already started. But please hurry."

"I'm on my way."

I ended  the conversation and floored the accelerator. I did not mind about the traffic lights. I didn't care about the rules. I didn't care about anything.

She was alive.

Alive.

I couldn't breathe properly. Years of searching. Years of refusing to give up. Being labeled obsessed and crazy over the years. And now, finally...

She was here.

Upon my arrival at the club, the guard was waiting outside.

"She's inside," he said.

I entered, and my heart beat the more as I went on.

The club was empty. Chairs scattered. Lights dim. And at the bar, where she sat, back to me, was a young woman. Her head was as drooped as though she was tired or drunk. Probably both.

My guard pointed. "That's her."

I gulped, my legs were trembling and I managed to sit.

Was it really her?

Did I dare believe this?

I continued to stare at her in fear that she might disappear once more.

My guard took the glass of alcohol off her and she raised her head.

And I froze.

Her face.

Her eyes.

Her.

It was her.

Exactly her.

The woman I loved.

The woman I lost.

The woman who had been dead, everybody said.

I sounded low, tremulous, incredulous.

"Liana?"

The moment the door opened, something in the air snapped so fast I thought the world tilted beneath my chair. I looked up, just to be polite, just to pretend I was a normal new hire on a normal morning, but the second my eyes landed on him my breath knotted inside my throat.

Damon.

My stomach plunged so sharply I almost gripped the desk. For a heartbeat I convinced myself I was imagining him, that the light was playing tricks, that the alcohol I'd tried so hard to forget was crawling back into my bloodstream and creating hallucinations. I blinked once. Twice. He was still there.

His eyes hit me like a physical force and I swear the room shrank. My skin reacted before my brain did, heat creeping up my neck, the metallic taste of shock pooling under my tongue. Maybe I whispered something. Maybe I only inhaled wrong. I couldn't tell. My pulse pounded in my ears so loudly it felt like the building was shaking.

He didn't move. He didn't breathe. He just stared.

I felt naked again. Not literally. Worse. That kind of naked where your soul is suddenly on the wrong side of your skin, exposed and trembling and stupidly aware of every inch of you he had touched even though I didn't want to remember that. Not here. Not now. God. Why now.

I swallowed, and it hurt. "Good morning, sir." My voice came out thin and strange, like it didn't belong to me. Like I had borrowed it from someone braver.

His jaw tightened, and his eyes flicked down my face as if he needed to confirm I was real. There was something raw in the way he looked at me. Something searching. Something dangerous. He took one step forward and the soft sound of his shoe on the marble floor made my spine snap straighter.

I tried to break eye contact. Couldn't. My body refused to obey me.

Maybe because I remembered the way he breathed against my shoulder last night. The way he said a name that wasn't mine. Liana. God. What did that even mean. Why did he look at me like he was staring at a ghost he used to kiss.

I forced my eyes down to the folder in front of me. Words swam. My fingers shook so much I slipped the paper slightly out of alignment and fixed it twice because it gave my hands something to do besides tremble.

I could feel him walking closer. Not from the sound. From the way the air thickened around me. From the sudden scent of him drifting in, that clean, deep cologne with a hint of something sharper. Maybe cedar. Maybe sin. My throat tightened hard.

"Aria." He said my name like he had known it for years. Like it wasn't brand new information from thirty seconds ago. Like he had tasted it before. His voice was lower today, rougher, scraping along my skin.

I nodded. Tiny. Mechanical. My palms damp.

Do not remember last night. Do not remember his hands. Do not remember anything.

Daniel looked between us, confused, then quickly excused himself into his office like he felt the tension press against the walls.

The glass door clicked shut behind him and suddenly it was just the two of us, in a silence so sharp I thought it might cut me open.

He walked past me slowly, almost cautiously, as if I might vanish again. He opened the door to his office but didn't enter. Instead he stood there with his hand on the doorknob, eyes never leaving me.

"You work here." The way he said it made me feel like I was doing something forbidden. Like I had walked into a room I was never supposed to enter.

"Yes," I whispered. It was embarrassing how breathless I sounded.

He didn't blink. "You left before I woke up."

My lungs froze. My fingers curled against the desk until they ached. "I... had to go."

I didn't know what else to say. What apology existed for running out on a stranger whose name I didn't even know at the time. For pretending nothing happened when everything did.

His gaze softened for half a second. Then hardened again. "And now you're here."

"I didn't know you were the CEO," I whispered too quickly, too defensively, as if the universe would suddenly rewind and undo it if I explained fast enough. "I didn't come here because of you. I swear I didn't. I didn't even know your name."

He stepped forward. Barely. But it was enough to send my heartbeat into a painful sprint.

"I know," he murmured. "And that's the only reason I'm still standing here trying to make sense of any of this."

His voice dropped even lower, and my stomach twisted painfully.

"You look like someone I knew," he said slowly. "Someone I lost."

My throat closed. Liana. That name he whispered last night. I felt the cold edge of panic crawl up my spine. He wasn't looking at me like I was me. He was looking at me like I was her.

Before I could form words, someone knocked on the outer door behind me. Hard. Urgent.

Damon's head snapped toward the sound, and his expression turned sharp, protective, almost territorial. His whole posture changed like a switch had flipped.

Daniel's voice came through, breathless. "Sir. You need to see this. Immediately."

Damon didn't move right away. His eyes stayed locked on mine for one last burning second.

"Do not go anywhere," he said quietly. Not a threat. Not a request. Something heavier.

He turned and disappeared into his office. Daniel followed, shutting the door behind them with a click that echoed through my bones.

I sat frozen at my desk, body buzzing with leftover adrenaline, heart kicking against my ribs. Every breath felt wrong. Too shallow. Too shaky. I kept trying to convince myself I was fine but my brain wouldn't stop repeating the same frantic loop.

He recognized me. He shouldn't. He shouldn't. He shouldn't.

Seconds passed. Maybe minutes. I couldn't tell.

Then the glass door burst open so suddenly I flinched back from my chair.

Damon stood there, face tight with something I couldn't read. Something fierce. Something dangerous. His eyes pinned me in place.

"Aria," he said, voice low and unsteady in a way that terrified me. "You need to come inside. Right now."

My pulse spiked. "Why. What's happening."

He didn't answer.

He just held the door open, waiting.

And behind him, on his office screen, I caught a glimpse of something that made my blood run cold.

A blurry photograph.

A dark street.

A familiar silhouette stepping out of a cab.

My silhouette.

And a timestamp from last night's club.

Someone had been watching me. Someone had taken the picture. Someone had sent it to Damon.

My breath tripped.

Damon's jaw clenched as he looked at me, eyes burning with an intensity that made my stomach drop.

"Come inside," he repeated, softer but far more dangerous.

"We have a problem."