chapter one : The Door
1678 Words
The first thing Aries noticed about the night shift was the silence.
Not the peaceful kind. The kind that settled over a room before a storm.
For the past four weeks, Aries had worked the morning shift at Marino Club, one of the most exclusive clubs in New York City. During the day, the place was almost ordinary. Wealthy businessmen stopped by for meetings, tourists took pictures beside the expensive decorations, and friends gathered over drinks and conversations.
It was the kind of place where people casually spent more money on a single bottle of wine than Aries had ever seen in her bank account. But tonight was different.
The moment she stepped into the club after sunset, she felt it.
The atmosphere had changed. The staff moved faster. Conversations were quieter. Even the security guards standing near the entrance looked more alert than usual.
“Aries.”
She looked up from the table she was cleaning.
Monica, the head waitress, stood beside her with a worried expression.
“Finish your section quickly,” Monica whispered.
Aries frowned. “Why? What's happening?”
Monica glanced around before lowering her voice. “Whatever happens tonight, keep your head down. Do your job and don't ask questions.”
The warning made Aries pause.
She had learned something important during her years in foster care. People didn't whisper unless they were afraid someone might hear.
“What kind of trouble are we talking about?” Aries asked.
Monica opened her mouth, but before she could answer, someone called her name from behind the bar.
She looked toward the sound, then back at Aries. "Just be careful.” Then she walked away.
Aries watched her disappear.
Strange.
Very strange.
She returned to cleaning the table, but her thoughts drifted.
Ever since leaving St. Agnes Foster Home two years ago, Aries had learned how quickly life could change.
One day, you had a roof over your head. The next, you were standing alone in the world, trying to figure out how to survive.
Aries had spent eighteen years in the foster home wondering why her parents had left her.
The foster home had never given her answers. There was no photograph, no letter, no explanation only a name written on an old document she had been allowed to see once before it disappeared. Her father's name.
She had memorized it before the document was taken away. It was the only piece of her past she possessed.
She didn't know what he looked like. She didn't know where he lived or whether he was even alive. She only knew his name.
And sometimes, when the loneliness became unbearable, she wondered if finding him would finally answer the question that had followed her throughout her life.
Why had he abandoned her?
Her childhood memories were different. Shared rooms. Cold meals. Children learning to stay quiet because attention often brought trouble
.
The foster home had not been a place filled with happy memories, but it had been the only home she knew. And the only reason she survived those years with her heart intact was because of one person.
Aunty Elisa.
She was the only caregiver who looked at them like they were children instead of problems waiting to be solved.
Aries still remembered the day she turned eighteen. Everyone at St. Agnes knew what that birthday meant.
It wasn't a celebration. It was goodbye.
The younger children avoided looking at her that morning because they knew one day they would face the same thing. Aries sat on her small bed, staring at the worn backpack beside her.
Inside were a few clothes and the hundred dollars the foster home gave every child who aged out.
A hundred dollars to start a new life. A hundred dollars to face a world she knew nothing about.
The door opened slowly.
“Aries.” She looked up.
Aunty Elisa stood there with a small smile, but sadness filled her eyes. “Happy birthday, my child.”
Those words were enough. The tears Aries had been holding back fell immediately. Aunty Elisa crossed the room and pulled her into a hug.
“I don't want to leave,” Aries whispered. Her voice shook. “I'm not ready.”
Aunty Elisa held her tighter. “I know.”
“I don't know how to do anything.”
“You will learn.”
“What if I fail?”
Aunty Elisa pulled back and looked into her eyes. “You have survived things many people couldn't imagine. Don't mistake fear for weakness, Aries.”
Those words stayed with her. Even when she eventually left. Even when she slept in uncomfortable places because she couldn't afford better. Even when she worked jobs where people treated her like she wasn't human.
She remembered. She survived.
Finding a job wasn't easy. She slept wherever she could afford and learned to stretch every dollar until it almost disappeared. Eventually, luck found her.
Marino Club.
The name alone carried weight.
The Marino Corporation was one of the most powerful organizations in the country. They owned businesses across multiple industries, including entertainment, technology, restaurants, hotels, and luxury clubs.
But despite their influence, one mystery remained. The owner.
Dante Marino.
The man whose name everyone knew but whose face almost no one had seen.
Some people called him a brilliant businessman. Others whispered that there was something darker behind the Marino empire.
Aries had never cared about rumors. She only cared that the job paid enough for her to survive. Until tonight.
The front doors of the club suddenly opened. Every conversation stopped. Heavy footsteps echoed across the polished floor.
Aries slowly looked up.
A group of men entered. They were unlike any customers she had ever seen. Tall, muscular and covered in tattoos. Their black leather jackets carried the same symbol.
A symbol Aries didn't recognize, but somehow understood meant trouble. The entire room shifted around them.
People moved aside. Staff lowered their voices. Nobody wanted to stand in their way.
Aries lowered her eyes and continued cleaning, but curiosity pulled at her. Then he entered. The man at the center of the group.
Unlike the others, he wasn't wearing leather.He wore a perfectly tailored black suit beneath a dark coat.
Everything about him looked expensive, controlled, powerful.The men around him followed his movements, but they weren't protecting him.They were following him.Like he was the person everyone answered to.The entire club seemed to belong to him.
He walked toward the private hallway at the back of the building.The bikers followed.The security guards immediately moved into position around the hallway.
Aries raised her head and watched them disappear.Just before the man entered the hallway, he stopped.He turned.
His eyes met hers.Aries froze.
For a few seconds, neither of them moved.
His gaze was unreadable,cold and assessing.As though he were trying to memorize her face.
Aries was the first to look away.When she looked back, he was gone. She swallowed.
Who was he?
Three hours later, the club was almost empty. The customers had left. The music had stopped. The staff members slowly disappeared one by one.
Monica had already gone home, and the waitress assigned to clean with Aries had begged her to cover the remaining work after leaving with a customer.
So Aries was alone. She finished wiping the final table and checked the time.
3:07 a.m.
She grabbed her bag, it was time to leave. She was almost at the exit when she heard it.
A sound from the private hallway. A scream.
Aries froze.
Her fingers tightened around her bag. Another scream followed. Her first instinct was to run.
Every lesson she had learned told her to stay away from danger. But then she noticed something.
The security guards who had been standing outside the hallway were gone. Aries frowned. That was strange.
She looked toward the hallway. The door was slightly open. Her stomach tightened. She was almost certain it had been closed earlier.
Someone had opened it.
But why?
Aries glanced toward the exit. She could leave. She should leave.
Whatever was happening behind that door had nothing to do with her. But what if someone inside needed help? She hesitated.
Then she remembered Aunty Elisa's words. Don't mistake fear for weakness.
Taking a deep breath, Aries moved closer.
One step.
Then another.
The hallway was darker than the rest of the club. The lights overhead flickered faintly as she walked. At the end of it was a door she had never noticed before.
Her heartbeat quickened. She reached for the handle. It turned without resistance. The door opened easily.
Aries's breath caught.
Behind it was not a storage room. Not an office.
A staircase.
It led underground. She stared into the darkness. From below, voices echoed. Men speaking. One voice sounded angry. Another was strangely calm.
Aries couldn't make out the words. She knew she should turn around. Every instinct inside her screamed at her to leave. Yet something kept pulling her forward.
Slowly, she stepped onto the first stair. Then the second. The deeper she went, the quieter the club above became.
The darkness swallowed the sound of her footsteps. She tightened her grip on the railing
.
She had no idea why the door had been left open. She didn't know why the guards had disappeared. And she certainly didn't know why the scream had drawn her here.
But one thing was certain. Someone wanted something to happen behind this door. And Aries was walking straight into it.
She took another step.
A man's voice suddenly echoed from below. “Tell me who sent you.”
Aries stopped breathing.
Another voice answered, but she couldn't make out the words.
Then came a sound that made every hair on her body rise. A chair scraping against the floor. Aries's heart hammered against her ribs.
She should run. She knew she should.
But instead, she took one final step toward the bottom of the stairs.
And looked through the narrow opening of the door ahead.
Her world changed in that moment.
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