A message from the Past
Chapter 1
Amara's POV
Sydney was exactly how I remembered it.
Bright.
Busy.
Beautiful.
And completely capable of making me regret coming home.
I stood outside Sydney Airport with one suitcase beside me, staring at the stream of cars moving along the road.
Three years.
Three years since I'd left Australia.
Three years since I'd promised myself I would never come back.
And yet here I was.
Twenty-two years old, exhausted from a twenty-hour journey, and already wondering if I had made the biggest mistake of my life.
My phone vibrated.
Tessa: Tell me you're outside.
I smiled despite myself.
Me: Yes.
Her reply came immediately.
Tessa: Don't move. I'm coming.
I looked around.
People hurried past me with luggage, phones pressed against their ears and coffee cups in their hands.
Sydney hadn't changed.
I had.
At least, that's what I kept telling myself.
A black SUV pulled up near the curb.
The passenger window lowered.
Tessa leaned across the driver's seat.
“Amara!”
I laughed.
She jumped out before the car had fully stopped and wrapped her arms around me.
“You're actually here.”
“I said I was coming.”
“You've said that for three years.”
I pulled away.
“I was busy.”
“Busy running away?”
My smile disappeared.
Tessa immediately softened.
“Sorry.”
“It's fine.”
It wasn't.
We both knew it.
She helped me put my suitcase in the trunk.
As we drove away from the airport, I watched Sydney pass through the window.
Buildings.
Traffic.
Streetlights.
Familiar places.
Memories I had spent years trying not to remember.
Tessa glanced at me.
“You nervous?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
I smiled faintly.
“Maybe a little.”
“You'll be fine.”
“I hope so.”
“You've got your apartment, your new job, and me.”
I looked at her.
“What could possibly go wrong?”
She laughed.
“That's exactly the sort of question that guarantees something will go wrong.”
I shook my head.
For the first time since landing, I relaxed.
Maybe coming back wasn't such a bad idea.
Maybe I could finally start over.
Then Tessa said something that made my entire body go still.
“By the way…”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“There's something I forgot to tell you.”
“What?”
She hesitated.
“You know the company you're working for?”
“Yes.”
“The one I told you about?”
“Yes.”
“Your new project manager is Daniel.”
I stared at her.
“What Daniel?”
She didn't answer.
She didn't have to.
There was only one Daniel.
One person in Sydney whose name I had spent three years refusing to say.
My stomach dropped.
“Daniel Hayes?”
Tessa nodded.
I looked back through the window.
“No.”
“Amara—”
“No.”
“He's not the same person anymore.”
“I don't care.”
“You haven't even seen him.”
“I don't need to.”
Tessa sighed.
“You're going to have to work with him.”
I felt my fingers tighten around my phone.
Three years.
I had spent three years rebuilding my life.
I had changed my number.
Moved interstate.
Deleted photographs.
Stopped asking mutual friends about him.
I had convinced myself that whatever existed between Daniel and me belonged to the past.
And now, on my first day back in Sydney, the past had apparently been waiting for me.
My phone vibrated.
An unfamiliar number.
Unknown: Welcome back, Amara.
I stared at the message.
My heart began beating faster.
Another message appeared.
Unknown: We need to talk.
I looked at Tessa.
She noticed my expression.
“What happened?”
I slowly turned the screen toward her.
Her smile disappeared.
“Who sent that?”
“I don't know.”
She looked at the number.
Then at me.
“Amara…”
“What?”
She swallowed.
“I think you do.”
I looked at the message again.
Three years ago, Daniel Hayes had been the person I trusted most.
Then one night, everything changed.
He disappeared from my life without an explanation.
And I left Sydney without giving him the chance to explain.
I had thought the story was over.
Apparently, it had only been waiting for me to come back.
And somehow, I already knew one thing.
Whatever Daniel wanted to tell me…
I wasn't going to like it.
End of Chapter 1
