Chapter 174: Chapter 175: The Father’s Shadow
MEI’S POV
Mei Chen had learned long ago how to read people. Years of working as a seamstress in Chinatown, dealing with all kinds of customers, had taught her to see beyond surfaces. To understand what people were really saying beneath their polite words.
And looking at Damien Blackwood now, she saw several things clearly.
He loved her daughter. That was obvious in every glance, every protective gesture, every careful word. The man was completely devoted to Aria in a way that would have been romantic if it wasn’t also slightly terrifying.
Because Mei also saw the possessiveness. The intensity. The barely controlled need to own, to control, to keep Aria close at all costs.
She’d seen that look before. In another man. A man she’d loved and fled from twenty-five years ago.
"You love my daughter," Mei said simply. "I can see it in the way you look at her and pay attention to her needs."
"I do love her. More than I’ve ever loved anyone."
"But...." Mei paused, choosing her words carefully. "I also sense something from the way you look at her. Something intense. Possessive. Am I wrong?"
Damien’s jaw tightened slightly. "No. You’re not wrong. I am possessive of her. Sometimes irrationally so. It’s a flaw I’m working on."
"A flaw," Mei repeated. "Or your nature?"
"Maybe both."
Mei nodded, appreciating his honesty. "Has Aria ever told you about her father? Her real father?"
Damien’s expression sharpened with interest. "No. She’s never mentioned him."
"Mie continued. The one everyone knows as her father is actually my second husband and Aria...She doesn’t know much herself. I kept it from her for her protection. But...." Mei took a breath. "She found out some things not long ago. The night she came home looking scared, saying she doesn’t think she knows anything about you."
Damien’s hands tightened into fists on the table. Mei didn’t miss the reaction.
"That night frightened you," Mei observed. "The thought of her leaving."
"It terrified me."
"Good. It should. Because that fear is what will keep you from becoming what I ran from." Mei met his eyes directly. "Aria’s father was....is.....a powerful man. Wealthy. Influential. And intensely possessive. When I met him, I thought his intensity was love. Thought his possessiveness was protection. By the time I realized it was control, I was already pregnant with Aria."
Damien listened intently, his expression unreadable.
"He loved me," Mei continued. "I don’t doubt that. But his love was suffocating. He needed to know where I was every moment. Who I spoke to. What I was thinking. He made decisions for me, claiming it was for my protection. He isolated me from friends, from family, until he was my entire world."
"And you left him."
"I ran from him. When Aria was two months old. I took her and disappeared because I knew.....I knew that if I stayed, I would lose myself completely. Would become nothing but an extension of him. And I couldn’t let Aria grow up seeing that. Couldn’t let her think that kind of relationship was love."
Mei paused, watching Damien’s reaction carefully.
"Young man, I know powerful men like you. I know from experience how intense they can get. How their love can feel like ownership. How their protection can become a cage." She leaned forward slightly. "Aria’s father is a perfect example. And I do not want my daughter to go through what I went through before leaving him."
"I would never....."
"Let me finish." Mei’s voice was gentle but firm. "I know you love her. I can see that you love her because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have saved me despite everything she did. You saved me despite knowing that she deceived you and stole from you. That action alone makes me understand just how much you love her."
Damien’s expression softened slightly.
"But I also see the intensity. The possessiveness. The way you watch her like you’re afraid she’ll disappear if you look away for even a moment. And that—" Mei’s voice became even gentler. "That scares me. Because I’ve seen where that intensity leads. I’ve lived it."
"What are you asking me?" Damien asked quietly.
"I’m asking you to promise me something." Mei reached across the table and placed her hand over his. "Please do not hurt her. She has gone through a lot. She has sacrificed a lot for others but she always forgets to think about herself. I do not want to see her hurt again. Can you promise me that, young man?"
Damien absorbed all the new information....about Aria’s father, about Mei’s past, about the parallel between his intensity and the man Mei had fled from. His chest tightened with the weight of it.
He looked at Mei Chen and saw a mother protecting her daughter. Saw a woman who’d survived something difficult and was trying to prevent her daughter from experiencing the same thing.
"You have my word, ma’am," he said firmly. "Aria is important to me, and I’ll do everything.....anything.....to keep her safe from any harm or anything that will hurt her. Including from myself."
Mei studied his face for a long moment, searching for sincerity.
"I’ll choose to believe you," she said finally. "But understand.....if you hurt her, if you cross the line from protection to control, if you make her smaller to make yourself bigger....I will do everything in my power to get her away from you. Wealth and power don’t intimidate me. I’ve faced both before and walked away. I’ll do it again if necessary."
"I understand. And I respect that."
"Good." Mei said and sat back in her seat."
They spoke for another twenty minutes..... Mei was warm but continued to assess, continued to measure him against some internal standard only she knew.
When Aria finally emerged from the kitchen, she found them laughing about something.....her mother telling an embarrassing story about toddler Aria’s obsession with taking apart electronics.
"Mama!" Aria protested. "You promised you wouldn’t tell embarrassing stories!"
"I promised no such thing," Mei said innocently. "Besides, Damien should know what he’s dealing with. You’ve been dismantling things since you could walk."
"She still does," Damien said, his eyes warm on Aria. "
They all laughed, and the rest of the evening passed in comfortable conversation and laughter.
But as they prepared to leave, Mei pulled Damien aside one more time.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "For loving her. For saving me. Just....remember what we discussed. Remember where the line is."
"I will. Thank you for trusting me with her."
Mei looked up at him, her expression both warm and warning. "Don’t make me regret it."
