Sighting in NYC
1180 Words
Chapter 1
Sighting In NYC
(Damien’s POV)
Six Months Later
I was on edge today, and this conversation with my father wasn’t helping.
“Damien, it’s time,” my father said through the phone.
“Dad, I don’t have time for marriage,” I replied, leaning back in my seat.
The town car glided through New York City, the concrete jungle stretching endlessly outside my window. I’d driven these streets countless times before, back when I was just an intern in my family’s business. But now, I ran it.
“Damien, your siblings are still young. I’m not. I want to see my grandchildren before I die,” my father said dramatically.
I sighed. “Dad, you’re not dying anytime soon.”
“You don’t know that. I could drop dead at any moment from the heartbreak of not having a daughter-in-law or grandchild. Your mother cries about it every day.”
“Oh, so this is about Mom?” I asked.
“No- yes. You know how she is. I just want her to be happy, Damien.” His voice softened with a sigh.
Despite my irritation, I couldn’t help but smile. Constantin Novak was unlike any other man in our world, including his own brother, Alexandre, Grey’s father and my uncle. Uncle Axel was a serial cheater who never loved my aunt. He was a miserable excuse for a man. My father, though, wasn’t like him. He loved my mother. Bella Novak was the love of his life, and he would do anything to make her smile.
But love like theirs only came once in a lifetime. I wasn’t expecting to find it. I wasn’t even looking.
“Dad—”
“I don’t want to hear anything,” he interrupted. “You will marry and make your mother happy. It’s time you settled down. Grey is married; now it’s your turn. You have one month to decide who you’ll marry, or I’ll decide for you.”
Then he hung up.
I stared at my phone for a moment before tossing it onto the seat beside me.
Traffic had slowed to a crawl. I watched the people outside weaving through crosswalks, all rushing somewhere as if their lives depended on it.
That’s when I saw her.
A girl stumbled on the sidewalk, falling to her knees. Her jeans were torn, her oversized jacket frayed at the cuffs. She looked exhausted.
I leaned closer to the window.
When she pushed her hair back from her face, my heart stopped.
Jade.
Jade Harrington?
I blinked, studying her.
It couldn’t be… but it was.
She was my sister-in-law Illeana’s friend. My cousin Gracie’s friend. Part of their inseparable trio with Nia Vanderbilt.
Gracie had asked me months ago to help look for Jade.
And here she was. Right in the middle of New York City.
No one would mistake her for an heiress now. She looked nothing like the poised, polished girl I remembered. What was she doing here, dressed like that? Why wasn’t she in California with her stepmother? Or in D.C. with her brothers?
Did they even know she was here?
Something wasn’t right.
I watched as she pulled her bag over her shoulder, her expression defeated. Broken.
An unfamiliar tightness gripped my chest. I wanted to go to her, to ask what happened, to fix it.
But before I could open the car door, she checked her phone, then turned and ran down an alleyway just as traffic began to move.
I twisted around, ready to tell the driver to stop, but it was too late.
She was gone.
Fine. I’d handle this another way.
I pulled out my phone and dialed one of the few people I trusted implicitly.
He answered on the second ring. “Damien. What can I do for you?”
“Slate, I need your help finding information on someone. Quietly.”
“No problem. Who’s the target?”
“Catherine Jade Harrington.”
- - - - - - - - - -
(Jade’s POV)
For the love of God. Could this day get any worse?
My knee throbbed from the fall, and the strap on my backpack had snapped.
I brushed off my jeans, my one decent pair, and groaned when I saw the new tear at my knee. Blood seeped through the fabric. Perfect. Just perfect.
I glanced around, pulling my hair out of my face. The uneasy feeling prickling the back of my neck wouldn’t leave.
Was someone watching me?
No. They couldn’t have found me. Not after everything I did to disappear.
My phone buzzed in my hand, startling me.
Ethan: If you’re not at the shop in the next minute, consider yourself fired.
“No, no, no,” I muttered under my breath. “This can’t be happening.”
I couldn’t lose this job… not now.
Clutching my broken bag, I took off down the alleyway. The coffee shop was only a few blocks away, but Ethan was an ass. Ever since I’d turned him down for a date, he’d made my life miserable. Still, I put up with it because the pay was decent, and the tips kept me afloat.
I needed this job to survive.
By the time I burst through the café doors, breathless, dread pooled in my stomach.
Ethan looked up from behind the counter, that smug grin already plastered across his face. “Cathy,” he drawled, “glad you could make it in. I need to see you in my office.”
“I need to clock in first,” I said quietly.
“You won’t need to.” He smirked.
My stomach sank.
He led me into the cramped office at the back, sat behind the desk, and folded his hands. I stayed standing.
Ethan held out an envelope. “You’ve been let go. Here’s your final paycheck.”
My throat went dry. “Please,” I whispered. “I need this job.”
His grin widened. He loved this, seeing me desperate.
“Well,” he said, leaning back in his chair, “we could work something out. You keep your job... and maybe spend a little time on your knees.”
Disgust burned through me. “No.”
He stood and grabbed my wrist. “You want to keep your job, don’t you?”
I yanked free, heart pounding. “I said no.”
His eyes hardened. “Then get the f**k out before I throw you out. You’re fired.”
Tears stung my eyes as I turned and ran out of the office, out of the café, ignoring the voices calling after me.
I didn’t stop until I reached a park bench a few blocks away. I sat down heavily, clutching my bag against my chest. My knee pulsed with pain.
I’d lost my job. The one I needed to keep my apartment. The one I needed to pay for school.
I had no one left.
Not a single person.
Not a single person I could turn to.
Why had this happened?
The tears came rushing out.
- Writer
