CHAPTER |2
1598 Words
Amarah’s POV
Marcus.. The butler, who had mistaken me for the nanny, didn’t seem to notice how I had sunk into the leather seat, still trembling from the sight of Casper and his men scanning the terminal for me. Or maybe he did and chose not to.
“Seat belt, Miss,” he spoke to me while his eyes were fixed on the road.
I pulled it on with shaky fingers.
As the car rolled away from the terminal, the city rose before me like a world made of beautiful lights and impossible dreams.
There were glass towers that looked as if they stabbed the sky.
Billboards glowed with pretty faces too perfect to be real.
While cars streamed past us like metal comets.
I had seen the city only in pictures on cracked phones and torn magazines.
I had dreamed of it since I could write the word future.
But seeing it with my own eyes. It looked wonderful.
My chest tightened painfully.
I pressed my forehead lightly to the window.
“Mama… I made it. Your sacrifice will not be for nothing. Please let this be the beginning. Let me work, save, go to school… and come back for you.” A tiny smile tugged at my lips as I whispered to myself.
But the fear didn’t leave.
Because I knew that behind me, somewhere in the dark, Casper’s shadow still lurked.
I clenched the hem of my hoodie, forcing myself to breathe.
‘Survive. Just survive tonight.’ I inwardly said to myself.
Marcus cleared his throat. “You’re awfully quiet.”
I forced a small smile. “I’m just… taking everything in.”
He nodded as though he was satisfied with my answer, but I wasn’t.
Thirty minutes later, the city thinned into a weird kind of silence as the sight of wealth immediately replaced the hustle and bustle. Roads grew longer, cleaner, almost as though they were hardly used.
And then..
The gates appeared.
Tall, iron gates draped in vines and money...
Golden initials gleamed across the center with the letters AH.
“This is…?” I whispered.
“Hart Villa,” Marcus said with a hint of pride seeping into his voice. “Mr. Aiden Hart’s private residence.”
The name slammed into me.
Aiden Hart?
The billionaire.
Oh God! I had read about him back at the province he was..
The untouchable man who owned half the companies and half the headlines.
The man who never smiled.
The man people feared more than they respected.
I swallowed hard as the gates opened with a deep metallic sound like the entrance to another world.
Marcus drove inside.
My breath vanished. What had I gotten myself into?
The road to the mansion glowed with marble fountains lit from underneath, water glowing like liquid diamonds.
Flowers bloomed on both sides in colors too rich to be real.
I whispered a shaky prayer.
“Mama, please. Let this be the place. Let this be the chance you risk everything else I’m done for.”
The car stopped before a mansion so massive it looked like a palace pretending to be a home.
“This is where you’ll be working,” Marcus said.
Working?
Oh boy! If only he knew I wasn’t even supposed to be here.
But as I stepped out into the courtyard, warm light welcomed me and I allowed myself one breath of hope.
Then the doors opened.
And every breath in my body froze.
Because he stood there.
Aiden Hart.
He was scary.. I mean far more handsome in person.
He wore a black shirt that molded into his perfectly sculpted shoulders.
And he was looking at me like I was a stain on his marble with eyes colder than winter rain.
“Good evening Sir.”
He didn’t say anything to me, and he didn’t look away either.
Instead, he watched me the way a hawk watched a mouse.
Marcus cleared his throat. “Sir, this is..”
“What happened to her face?” Aiden asked with a soft voice that sounded razor-sharp.
Heat crawled up my neck.
I tilted my face away, hiding the red bruise.
“I.. I fell,” I muttered.
Aiden’s brow lifted slightly. It was a tiny movement but it kind of felt like a sword sliding out of its sheath.
“You’re a terrible liar,” he replied as he descended the steps with slow, controlled movements that made my chest tighten.
He stopped inches from me.
Close enough that his clean, cold cologne brushed my skin.
Close enough that my heartbeat tripped painfully.
His eyes held mine in a cold, sharp and searching way.. Like he could see right through me.
“You’re shaking,” he said quietly.
“I’m not.” My voice cracked.
“You are.”
His gaze dropped to my hands, trembling at my sides.
I clenched them, forcing them still.
“I’m just… nervous,” I whispered.
“Nervous people usually have reasons to be.”
His eyes slid past me, toward the still-open gates.
“Is someone looking for you?”
My breath stopped.
He knew?
“I.....I just want to work,” I said.
He stepped closer.
Too close.
“And what exactly are you running from that’s making you so uneasy?”
My breath hitched.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed. Barely, but enough.
“I’m not running or scared, I'm just a bit.. shy and nervous,” I lied.
His lips curled, it was not a smile, just a slight, cold shift.
Before he could say more.
“Daddy!”
A tiny voice pierced the air.
A little girl in purple pajamas ran toward him and hugged his leg and another boy..
Her older brother, perhaps. Followed, slower and a bit more guarded.
Aiden didn’t bend to hug them, he didn’t scoop them up, he didn’t even show warmth.
Instead, he placed a hand on each small head like it was a chore.
They adored him, and he looked like he was tolerating them.
Their eyes shifted to me.
The little girl stood behind his leg with a frown on her face.
The boy just stared at me.
“Who’s she?” the girl whispered.
“The nanny,” Aiden replied.
The words slammed into me.
His children examined me as if I were a questionable fruit at a market.
Aiden simply watched me with an unsettling intensity.
Finally, he said, “Inside.. We’re not done.”
Then he looked at his children. “I thought you were sleeping..”
I didn’t hear the other words he said.. All I knew was he was going to fire me.
Throw me out.
And Casper would be waiting.
But I forced my legs to move.
Inside, the mansion’s interior swallowed me whole.
The white marble floors and golden lights ohhh and there was a chandelier so large it looked like a fallen star.
But Aiden…
Aiden dominated everything.
He walked with silent power, his hands in his pockets, his posture straight and unreadable.
He opened a side door to his office and motioned for me to enter.
I stepped inside.
He closed the door behind us with a soft click.
It sounded like a cage locking.
“Sit,” he said.
I sat, hands clasped to stop them from shaking.
Aiden stood behind his desk, watching me.
“Tell me why you’re really here.”
“I told you..”
“Don’t lie, you don’t look like someone working as a nanny.”
The words sliced through the room.
I inhaled shakily.
“Its.. it’s my first job and I need it.”
“Why?”
“To survive.”
He raised a brow and I knew within me that, that was the wrong answer.
“So I can… get enough money to take care of my mother.”
He paused.
Something flickered in his eyes.
Pain, maybe.. recognition.
But then it vanished before he spoke quietly.
“Last question. Are you bringing danger into my home?”
“No,” I whispered honestly.
His voice dropped lower.
“Are you sure?”
My throat tightened.
“Yes.”
He studied me.
And for a long, terrifying moment, he said nothing.
Then his jaw clenched.
“Whoever hit you… will he come here?”
“No. He won’t.”
Was it a lie or a prayer?.. I couldn’t tell all I knew was that I was safe.
Aiden held my gaze for several seconds.
Then he stepped back.
“You’re hired.”
My chest collapsed with relief.
But he wasn’t done.
He leaned closer to me, although we weren’t touching, but close enough that heat pooled low in my stomach.
“But understand this,” he murmured.
“If someone thinks they can follow you here… they’ll learn quickly I am not a man to be crossed.”
A shiver swept down my spine.
“And you,” he added softly, “will come to me first. Before anyone.”
He waited and I nodded. “Yes Sir.”
“Good now go...”
I rose slowly.
My knees were weak.
As I reached the door, he called..
“Amarah.”
I turned.
His expression remained unreadable.
But his eyes…
His eyes were lethal.
“Don’t make me regret this.”
My voice trembled.
“I won’t.”
When I stepped out of the office, the air felt different because I knew that I had escaped one monster tonight…
Only to walk into the domain of another.
But this one..
Aiden Hart.. Felt like a danger I wasn’t prepared for.
- Writer
