Chapter 3 — Five Years Later
382 Words
Five years could change everything.
For Ella Carter, those five years were about survival.
She was no longer the broken girl who stood outside the Knight Hotel in the rain.
She was now a mother.
A strong woman who built a life from nothing.
“Mommy, are we going to be late?”
A small voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
Ella looked down and smiled.
Noah stood there with his little backpack, his bright eyes full of curiosity.
He was five years old.
And every time Ella looked at him, she saw a piece of the man she tried so hard to forget.
Lucas Knight.
The man who never knew he had a son.
“Come here, sweetheart,” Ella said, fixing his collar.
Noah smiled.
“Are we going to the park after school?”
“If you behave.”
“I always behave,” he replied proudly.
Ella laughed softly.
That was her happiness now.
Her son.
⸻
Across the city, inside the tallest building downtown, Lucas Knight stared out of his office window.
Five years.
Five years since Ella disappeared.
Everyone thought he had moved on.
They were wrong.
He had everything.
Money.
Power.
Success.
But every night, he still wondered one thing.
Where is she?
His assistant walked in.
“Mr Knight, your meeting is ready.”
Lucas didn’t turn around.
“Cancel it.”
The assistant looked surprised.
“Sir?”
Lucas looked at the old photo on his desk.
A photo of Ella.
The only thing he never threw away.
“I need to find someone.”
⸻
That same afternoon, fate brought them closer than ever.
Ella walked into a luxury building for a business meeting, holding Noah’s hand.
She didn’t know the owner of that company.
She didn’t know whose building she had entered.
Until the elevator doors opened.
And she saw him.
Lucas Knight.
Older.
More powerful.
More dangerous.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Then Lucas whispered the name he had been waiting five years to say.
“Ella…”
Her heart stopped.
But before she could answer, Noah looked up at Lucas.
And Lucas froze.
Because the little boy had his eyes.
The same eyes he saw every morning in the mirror.
Chapter 3 End.
- Writer
