TWO
1182 Words
The Man She Left Behind
Aurora stepped out of the police station almost an hour later, but she couldn’t remember anything the detective had said after mentioning Damien’s name.
The afternoon sun was painfully bright.
She stood on the pavement, staring at the busy street as cars rushed past her. People walked around her, laughing, talking on their phones, carrying coffee cups and shopping bags as though the world hadn’t just shifted beneath her feet.
Her world had.
She reached into her handbag and pulled out her phone, her thumb hovered over the screen. She opened her contacts. She had deleted his number seven years ago, at least, that was what she had always told herself.
Her fingers moved through the list until she stopped.
DAMIEN BLACKWOOD.
Aurora froze.
She didn’t remember saving it again, maybe she never had, maybe some part of her had been too afraid to erase the last piece of him.
Her heart began to pound. She stared at the number for several seconds before locking her phone.
“No.”
The word escaped her lips.
She couldn’t call him. She wouldn’t. Damien Blackwood was the last person in the world she wanted to ask for help. Especially after what he had done.
“Aurora?”
She turned.
Claire stood a few feet away, breathless, a strand of blonde hair falling across her face.
“I’ve been calling you.”
Aurora slipped her phone into her handbag. “I didn’t hear it.”
Claire studied her face. “What did they say?”
Aurora swallowed. “Ethan is still being held.”
“Can you see him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“They’re saying the evidence is complicated.”
Claire frowned. “What does that mean?”
Aurora looked away. “It means they think he stole eight million dollars.”
Claire’s eyes widened “Eight million?”
Aurora nodded. “And there’s more.”
“What?”
Aurora hesitated. She didn’t know how to say his name without feeling like she was betraying herself. “The company belongs to Damien.”
Claire’s expression changed immediately. “Oh.”
That single word carried everything.
Aurora laughed bitterly. “Exactly.”
“Did the detective say Damien could help?”
“He said Damien has access to information the police don’t have.”
“Then you have to see him.”
Aurora’s head snapped toward her. “No.”
“Aurora…”
“No.”
“You just said Ethan could spend years in prison.”
“I know.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
Aurora opened her mouth but nothing came out.
Claire stepped closer.
“You don’t have to forgive him.”
“I don’t want to see him.”
“You don’t have to want to.”
Aurora did not notice she was shivering until Claire hugged her.
“Aurora snap out of it”
Aurora looked at her.
“Claire…”
“Your brother needs you.”
Silence.
That was the problem. If this were only about Aurora, she could walk away. She had spent seven years learning how to live without Damien. She could spend another seventy.
But Ethan was different. He was the only person who had stayed beside her when everything else fell apart.
She couldn’t abandon him now.
Aurora closed her eyes.
For a brief moment, she remembered a different Damien.
Not the billionaire whose face appeared on magazine covers, not the man whose name made executives lower their voices, not the man everyone in Los Angeles feared.
Her Damien. The man who used to wait outside her classes with her favorite coffee.
The man who knew she hated thunderstorms and would call whenever the sky grew too dark.
The man who once told her that no matter what happened, he would never be the reason she cried.
Her eyes burned.
Then came the memory she had spent years trying to bury. The night he broke that promise. The night she discovered the truth. The night she walked away.
“The next time I set my eyes on you, may be your last day on earth”
Aurora opened her eyes immediately. Both her lover and the beast in him were dead to her.
Or at least, the woman who loved him was.
“I’ll go,” she whispered.
Claire released a breath. “Tomorrow?”
Aurora shook her head.
“Today.”
*****
Thirty minutes later, Aurora sat in the back of Claire’s car. Neither woman spoke.
Los Angeles passed outside the window in a blur of glass buildings, palm trees, traffic lights, and expensive cars.
Aurora stared at her reflection in the window.
She barely recognized herself.
Seven years ago, she had been twenty years old.
Young, naive and in love.
She had believed love could survive anything. She had been wrong.
Her phone vibrated.
She glanced down.
A message from an unknown number.
You should not go to Blackwood Holdings.
Aurora’s eyebrows knitted together.
Another message appeared.
Some doors are better left closed.
Her heart skipped.
She immediately looked around the car.
Claire noticed. “What?”
Aurora handed her the phone.
Claire read the messages.
“Who sent this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could it be Damien?”
Aurora shook her head.
“Why would he?”
Claire looked at her.
“Maybe because he knows you’re coming.”
Aurora stared at the screen. The messages had been sent from a blocked number.
She tried calling but the number couldn’t be reached.
A cold feeling settled in her stomach.
Someone knew she was going to see Damien.
But who?
Before she could think further, Claire slowed the car.
Aurora looked through the windshield.
The towering glass structure of Blackwood Holdings appeared ahead.
Her stomach twisted. There it was.
The place that belonged to the man she had spent seven years trying to forget. Claire pulled into the parking area. Aurora didn’t move.
“Are you okay?”
She stared at the building. “No.”
Claire reached across and squeezed her hand.
“You don’t have to do this alone.”
Aurora nodded.
She opened the car door.
The moment her feet touched the ground, her phone vibrated again. This time, there was only one sentence.
He never stopped looking for you.
Aurora froze.
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
She turned around.
The parking lot was crowded.
Employees were walking toward the building.
Cars were moving in and out.
But there was no one watching her.
At least, no one she could see.
She looked down at the message again.
Her fingers trembled.
For seven years, Aurora had believed she was the one who had walked away from Damien.
But what if she had been wrong?
What if Damien had been looking for her all this time?
And more importantly…
Who was warning her to stay away from him?
Aurora slowly lifted her eyes toward the entrance of Blackwood Holdings. She wanted to run, but her legs remained fixated on the ground.
So she walked inside
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