Chapter 2
1090 Words
BELLE VALEZ
The skyline of New York is breathtaking, but it isn’t comforting. Not really.
I stand at the apartment window, watching the city lights flicker across the glass while the world below moves faster than I can keep up. It’s been over a year since my mother died, and every day since has felt like swimming against a current determined to pull me under. Between keeping the rent paid, feeding my younger siblings, and juggling random jobs, I barely have a moment to breathe.
Her medical bills drained every cent we ever saved. The day after the funeral, I tried to find work, but in a city this big, no one cares that you’re responsible for three kids and drowning in debt.
I pull the collar of my coat tighter around myself, hugging my own body as if that could hold me together. I think about that night — the one I shouldn’t remember, shouldn’t even dare to think about. The night I dressed up and walked into a bar pretending to be someone else. That night was supposed to be forgettable, but it haunts me.
“You’re safe now. He’ll never find you.”
I tell myself that often, but the lie never settles right. Maybe because a tiny, treacherous part of me wishes he would.
I shake the thought off, jump into the shower, and secure my wig tighter. New city. New name. New life. Nobody here knows who I am. Nobody knows the girl who ran away carrying a secret — one that lives under my skin and smiles up at me every morning.
I turn toward the small bedroom. Athena is curled up like a tiny kitten, breathing softly. My daughter. My miracle. My consequence. The result of a one night I’ll never forget.
When I first found out I was pregnant, I thought fate was punishing me. I couldn’t even feed myself. How was I supposed to raise a child?
My siblings asked who the father was, but I refused to mention him.
It wasn’t as though I didn’t know exactly who he was. I did. His face was plastered across a magazine the very next morning, and seeing his name only strengthened my resolve to stay away.
Men like him would only see me as a gold digger. I wanted no part in that, and I didn’t want my child tangled up in anything messy. Not for my sake — for hers.
My heart softens and hardens at the same time. I have her, and that is enough.
But somewhere in this same city, a man with sharp eyes and a sharper mind is searching.
And I have no idea.
***
THREE THOUSAND MILES AWAY — EROS KINGSTON
I’m losing my mind.
My office looks like a hurricane tore through it — papers everywhere, my jacket thrown on the floor, and I’m sure I haven’t slept properly in years.
Because I haven’t.
“Sir,” Ethan says from the doorway, “we checked the London lead. It wasn’t her.”
My jaw clenches. I stare down at the worn, fading photo in my hand — a snapshot printed from a security camera the night she vanished.
Her face was blurry.
Her hair wild.
Her lips swollen from my kiss.
My voice cracks in that cold, terrifying way I hate.
“Keep looking.”
“Eros,” Ethan says again, softer this time. “You’ve searched every city. What if… she doesn’t want to be found?”
I turn to him slowly.
“If she didn’t want to be found,” I say, “she would have dyed her hair.”
I rub my forehead.
“And she didn’t.”
But she did.
Just not in the way I expected.
***
BELLE VALEZ
My first day in the new apartment is uneventful. I find a daycare for Athena — I’ll be too busy to care for her properly during work hours. I buy groceries, make dinner, clean up, and tuck her into bed.
Then I sit down and rehearse my new last name until it doesn’t feel like a tongue-twister. I need to be careful. If he ever finds out about Athena…
I shake it off and continue searching for a job. I’m tired of running errands and doing online freelance for pennies.
Then I see it.
BLACK ENTERPRISES — Personal Assistant (Confidential Position)
Competitive salary. Immediate placement. Strict screening.
My thumb almost scrolls past.
Almost.
But the salary… the benefits… the stability…
It looks perfect. It's too perfect.
My stomach twists.
“No,” I whisper. “Not him. It can’t be him.”
Eros Kingston doesn’t open branches in New York. Eros Kingston doesn’t do anything quietly. Eros Kingston doesn’t—
I click the posting.
He does now.
My pulse slams against my ribs.
I should close the page. I should forget this. I should—
I press “Apply.”
Because I have a daughter now.
And sometimes survival looks a lot like risk.
***
EROS
A notification flashes on my laptop.
A new application.
I scroll lazily — until a name makes my breath catch.
I stop.
Stare.
Read it again.
Belle Anderson.
Not Valez.
But the face…
My heart stumbles.
I zoom in, hands trembling.
The cheekbones.
The lips.
Those eyes — even behind glasses.
“Ethan,” I call sharply.
“Yes, sir?”
“I want this applicant interviewed first thing tomorrow. Full background check. School records. Medical. Travel. Everything.”
Ethan hesitates. “Sir… do you think—”
“I don’t know,” I whisper, dragging a hand through my hair.
“I don’t know. But I can’t ignore it.”
I close the laptop and stare at the ceiling.
“Belle… if it’s you…”
My voice drops, softer than I ever speak.
“…I’m not letting you go again.”
***
BELLE
My phone buzzes.
"Congratulations. your interview is scheduled for tomorrow, 9:00 a.m."
I freeze.
No.
No.
No.
This position should take a week to process. Why… why so fast?
Fear and hope twist inside me, messy and dangerous.
“What if he remembers me?” I whisper.
I shake my head hard.
No. He’s far away. He’s not thinking about me.
I shut the laptop, turn off the light, and crawl into bed, curling around Athena.
But sleep refuses to come.
Because deep down, in the place I hate admitting exists, a truth whispers against my spine:
Eros Kingston doesn’t let go of anything he wants.
Not even after seventeen months.
- Writer
