Lunch at Hart's Enterprise
1836 Words
The Hart Enterprises tower pierced the Valemont City skyline like a blade of black glass, catching the afternoon sun and throwing it back in sharp, unforgiving angles. Amara Bennett paused at the intersection of Harbor Avenue and Fifth, tilting her head back to follow the building's ascent until it disappeared into the cloudless September sky. Sixty-eight floors of pure power, everyone said. She'd counted them herself more times than she cared to admit.
"Still makes you dizzy, doesn't it?"
Amara jumped, nearly dropping the brown paper bag containing her father's lunch. A businessman in an expensive suit smirked as he passed, probably assuming she was another small-town girl overwhelmed by the big city. He wasn't entirely wrong. Even after eighteen years of living in Valemont's shadow, the Hart tower still took her breath away.
But the feeling was different today, she could sense the atmosphere fully charged with possibilities.
She re-adjusted her brown leather bag which had a unique design indicating it was self made and moved across the street toward the Hart Enterprises complex. The security gates rose ahead of her like iron sentinels, their intricate metalwork bearing the Hart family crest a stylized heart enclosed by thorny vines. Beautiful and dangerous, just like everything else the Harts touched.
"Afternoon, Miss Bennett."
The guard greeted as his voice carried a warmth that the imposing gates couldn't convey. Marcus had been working security for almost as long as her father had been the gatekeeper, and he'd watched Amara grow from a little ten-year-old sketching by the fence to the young woman she was now.
"Hi, Marcus. Dad forget his lunch again?"
"Third time this week." Marcus buzzed her through the pedestrian gate. "He's been distracted lately. More than usual."
Amara added as she frowned. Her father had always been a man of few words, but lately, Samuel Bennett had been even quieter than normal. He'd jump at unexpected sounds, stare out the window for long stretches, and sometimes she caught him looking at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. Worry? Fear? Guilt?
"He's probably just tired," she said, though she felt disbelief in her statement.
The employee entrance led her through a marble lobby that screamed wealth and influence. Her sneakers squeaked against the polished floor as she approached the reception desk, where a woman with severely pulled-back hair looked her up and down with barely concealed disdain.
"Delivery for Samuel Bennett," Amara said, holding up the bag.
"Gate three. You know the way."
The dismissive tone made Amara's cheeks burn, but she'd learned long ago not to rise to the bait and just ignore the unpleasant attitude of the receptionist. In this world full of glass towers and designer suits, she would always be just the gatekeeper's daughter. The girl who didn't belong no matter how hard she tried, she thought to herself as she advances towards gate three.
She made her way through the building's lower level, past offices filled with important people doing important things that would probably change the world or at least make them richer and influential. The Hart family hadn't built their empire by accident. Three generations of ruthless ambition had created a business dynasty that controlled everything from tech startups to shipping companies, with fingers in every pie that mattered in the East Coast economy. They were obviously monopolising the tech market.
Gate three was her father's domain. Samuel Bennett had been the Hart family's gatekeeper for over twenty years, controlling access to the private section of the complex where only family and the most trusted employees were allowed. He took pride in his work, even if others might see it as glorified security. He was obviously important to the Hart family and had been put there by the family matriarch.
She found him in his small office adjacent to the gate, hunched over a stack of visitor logs. His dark hair, now more gray than brown, fell across his forehead as he worked. At fifty-five, Samuel Bennett was still a handsome man, though the years had carved deep lines around his eyes.
"You forgot this," Amara said, setting the bag which contains his lunch on his desk.
Samuel looked up, and for just a moment, that strange expression flickered across his face again. "Thank you, sweetheart. You didn't have to come all the way down here."
"It's not that far from the gallery." She settled into the chair across from his desk, the same chair she'd occupied countless times during high school when she'd wait for him after classes. "Besides, I wanted to see you. We barely talk anymore."
"We talked this morning."
"About groceries and bills. I mean really talk like have a good daughter and father conversation."
Samuel unwrapped his sandwich, avoiding her gaze. "What's there to talk about? You're doing well at the gallery, your art is improving every day. I'm proud of you, Amara.Even most of my friends are recommending your good work" he said trying to change the previous topic.
There it was again that weight in his voice, like he was carrying something too heavy to bear. Amara leaned forward, studying her father's face. As an artist, she'd trained herself to notice the details others missed. The slight tremor in his hands. The way his eyes darted toward the window whenever a car passed. The manila envelope tucked beneath a stack of papers, its corner just visible. She could definitely deduce that something a wrong.
"Dad, is everything okay? You seem......"
A deep rumble cut through her words. Through the office window, she could see a sleek black Navigator approaching the gate. The car moved with predatory grace, its tinted windows hiding whoever sat inside.
Samuel's entire body went rigid. "He's early."
"Who's early?" She asked ?
But her father was already standing, smoothing his uniform and checking his appearance in the small mirror hung beside his desk. The transformation was immediate and complete from the tired man eating lunch with his daughter to the professional gatekeeper who'd earned the Hart family's trust through decades of loyal service.
"You should go," Samuel said, not unkindly but with unmistakable urgency.
"Dad......"
"Please, Amara. Not now."
The dismissal stung, but the worry in his voice stopped her from arguing. She gathered her things and moved toward the door, pausing when she realized the Navigator had stopped directly in front of the gate. The driver's door opened first, and a man in a crisp chauffeur's uniform stepped out. But it was the rear passenger door that held her attention.
The man who emerged from the Navigator moved like he owned the world which, in many ways, he did. Leon Hart was a thirty-two years old billionaire, worth more money than most people could count, and controlled a business empire that spanned continents. Amara had seen him in newspapers and magazine articles, of course, but those photos hadn't prepared her for the reality of his presence as she was shocked.
He was tall, probably six-foot-two, with the kind of lean build that spoke of discipline, control and dominace. His dark hair was styled in a way that looked effortless but probably cost more than her monthly rent. The perfectly tailored charcoal suit did nothing to hide the power in his shoulders or the predatory grace in his movement.
But it was his face that made her breath catch. Leon Hart was devastatingly handsome in the way that rich men often were, but there was something else there. Something that made her artist's eye want to capture him on canvas. Sharp cheekbones and a strong jaw gave him an aristocratic bearing, but his mouth currently set in a hard line suggested he was capable of both cruelty and unexpected gentleness. Dark brows framed eyes that were almost black, the kind of eyes that seemed to see everything and reveal nothing.
Those eyes were currently focused on her father, but as Samuel approached the gate, Leon's gaze shifted slightly.
And suddenly, Amara couldn't breathe.
Leon Hart was looking directly at her through the office window. Not a casual glance, not the dismissive look she was used to from the Hart employees or the one she had received earlier that day. He was studying her with the same intensity she'd been studying him, his dark eyes taking in every detail of her appearance.
Time seemed to slow down at that moment. The mundane sounds of the complex ringing phones, clicking keyboards, passing car faded into white noise. There was only the weight of Leon Hart's stare and the strange sensation that something fundamental had just shifted in her world.
His expression was unreadable, but she caught something that looked almost like recognition flickering across his features. Which was impossible. Men like Leon Hart didn't notice girls like her. They certainly didn't look at them like they were trying to solve a puzzle they couldn't quite figure out.
"Miss Bennett?"
Samuel's voice snapped her back to reality. Both he and Leon were now standing by the gate, her father looking nervous while Leon continued to watch her with that unsettling intensity.
"Sorry," she mumbled, grabbing her bag and heading for the door. But she couldn't resist one last look over her shoulder she couldn't say if she waa stung by his predatory presence or his handsome looks.
Leon Hart was still watching her. And for the first time in her life, Amara Bennett felt like she was standing at the edge of a cliff, one step away from falling into something that would change everything.
She turned away and walked quickly toward the exit, her heart hammering against her ribs as if a heavy machinery construction was going on. Behind her, she heard the soft murmur of voices as Samuel opened the gate for the most powerful man in Valemont City.
What she didn't see was Leon Hart's hand tighten around the leather portfolio he carried, or the way his eyes followed her until she disappeared around the corner.
And she definitely didn't notice the small sketch that had fallen from her bag a delicate pencil drawing of a woman's face, rendered with the kind of loving detail that spoke of memory and loss.
A woman who looked remarkably like Elaine Hart, Leon’s mother who had vanished without a trace twenty-two years ago.
Tension rises as Leon looked at the little piece of art on the floor.
- Writer
