A Ghost with a Name
532 Words
Chapter 20: A Ghost with a Name
Leila didn’t recognize the man’s face right away.
The security footage Zara pulled from the café across the street wasn’t clear, but the posture, the way he leaned against the building, and the lazy confidence in his stance — it all sent a chill through her.
Zara zoomed in.
“Does he look familiar?”
Leila’s voice came out hollow.
“Yeah.”
She hadn’t seen that face in over eight years.
Not since the night he vanished — leaving her alone, panicked, with police sirens howling in the distance and a record she barely avoided.
Jayden Carter.
The boy who taught her how to hotwire a car.
The boy who taught her how to lie.
The boy she once loved — and the boy who disappeared without ever saying goodbye.
And now… he was back.
“Are you serious?” Zara whispered. “Jayden? He’s the one stalking you?”
“I don’t know if it’s him,” Leila said. “But it looks like him. And if it is… he’s the only one who’d have that photo.”
“What does he want?”
Leila stared at the footage. “Revenge. Maybe money. Or maybe… he just wants to remind me who I used to be.”
That night, she didn’t tell Damian.
She couldn’t.
He was dealing with the board — still trying to secure his position as CEO — and she couldn’t risk shaking his trust now. Not when their relationship was finally becoming real.
Instead, she waited until he fell asleep… and quietly slipped out of the estate.
She met Jayden on the edge of the Lower East Side, in a dimly lit alley near an old mechanic’s garage. A place that used to be one of their hideouts.
He was leaning against the wall like no time had passed — hoodie up, hands in pockets, smile lazy and dangerous.
“Well, well,” he drawled. “Look who got rich.”
Leila crossed her arms. “Cut the games. Why are you following me?”
Jayden pushed off the wall. “I wanted to see if you’d still come running when I called. Looks like you did.”
“I’m not that girl anymore.”
He stepped closer. “Oh, I know. I saw you in that shiny red dress. The CEO’s trophy girl. Must be nice having real money now. Real power.”
“What do you want?”
“Just a little piece of the pie,” he said smoothly. “Call it compensation. For the silence I’ve kept all these years.”
Her jaw clenched. “You left me behind.”
“And you moved on. Good for you.” He leaned in, eyes sharp. “But don’t pretend you don’t owe me something. Because if I go to the press with what we did back then? The world won’t care how long ago it was. You’ll lose everything.”
Leila’s heart pounded.
He was bluffing… wasn’t he?
Jayden stepped back and tossed her a burner phone.
“I’ll call you tomorrow. Be ready to make a deal.”
Then he walked off into the shadows.
- Writer
