Chapter 202: Chapter 203: Aria’s Father
Mei sat down heavily in one of her dining chairs, her hands shaking slightly. "There’s only one person I can think of. Only one person who would know these are my favorite flowers. Who would have the money to send arrangements like this. Who might want to..."
She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
"Who, Mama?" Aria pressed gently.
Mei looked up at her daughter....her beautiful, brilliant daughter who knew nothing about the man who’d fathered her. Who’d been protected from that knowledge for twenty-five years.
"Your father," Mei said quietly. "Your biological father."
The silence in the apartment was absolute.
"My father?" Aria repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. "But you said that it was a mistake, a brief relationship that didn’t work out....."
"I lied." Mei felt tears prick at her eyes. "I’m sorry, baby. I lied to protect you. To protect both of us."
Damien’s expression had gone completely neutral....the look he got when he was processing information and calculating responses. "I think you should tell her."
Mei nodded miserably. "His name is Alexander. No relation. And twenty-five years ago, he was....still is, I suppose.....one of the most powerful men in international business. Real estate development, mostly. Projects across Asia, some in Europe. Connections that go very deep, very high."
"And you ran from him," Damien said, still in that neutral voice. "That’s why you disappeared when Aria was an infant. Why you’ve been so careful about keeping a low profile. You’ve been hiding from him all these years."
"Yes." Mei’s voice broke. "He was... is... intense. Possessive. When I met him, I thought his intensity was love. S he looked at Aria. I thought his possessiveness was protection. But it became suffocating. He needed to control everything about my life....where I went, who I spoke to, what I thought. And when I got pregnant, it got worse. He was obsessed with the idea of having an heir, having someone to carry on his legacy."
Aria sank into a chair, her face pale. "So you ran."
"When you were two months old. I took you and disappeared in the middle of the night. Changed our names, moved to New York, built a completely new life and that was when i met your father... and he accepted you as his daughter and he loved you." Mei looked at her hands. "I’ve been terrified for twenty-five years that he would find us. That he would try to take you away from me."
"And you think he’s found you now," Damien said. "That these flowers are his way of announcing that he knows where you are."
"White lilies and red roses were always his gifts to me. His signature. I’d know these arrangements anywhere." Mei’s voice shook. "He’s found us. After all these years, he’s found us."
Aria stood up abruptly and moved to the window, staring out at Chinatown’s evening bustle. Damien followed, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"We’ll handle this," he said quietly. "Whatever happens, you’re protected."
"Protected how?" Aria turned to face him, her expression a mixture of fear and anger. "If this man is as powerful as my mother says, if he’s been looking for us for twenty-five years...."
"Then he’s about to learn that you’re under my protection now. And that carries weight." Damien’s voice was steel. "I’ll have Marcus investigate Alexander immediately. Find out everything about him....his current location, his business interests, his connections, his vulnerabilities. We’ll know more about him than he knows about himself."
"But what does he want?" Aria asked, her voice anguished. "Why now, after all this time?"
Mei stood and moved to her daughter, taking her hand despite the fear coursing through her. "I don’t know, baby. Maybe he’s always been looking and only just found us. Maybe something changed in his life that made him decide to reach out. Maybe....." She couldn’t finish.
"Maybe he wants to meet his daughter," Damien finished grimly. "After twenty-five years of not knowing her, he’s found her. And men like that....men used to getting what they want.....don’t take no for an answer easily."
The three of them stood in the small apartment, surrounded by the flowers that had transformed from beautiful gifts to ominous warnings.
Mei looked at the white lilies and red roses and felt the same fear she’d felt twenty-five years ago when she’d run in the middle of the night with an infant in her arms.
Alexander had found them.
Despite all her efforts to stay hidden for twenty five years.
*******
LATER THAT NIGHT - AFTER DAMIEN AND ARIA LEFT
Mei sat alone in her apartment, staring at the flowers. Damien had wanted to take them, to have them analyzed or destroyed or something, but Mei had insisted on keeping them.
She needed to look at them. Needed to remember why she’d run all those years ago.
Her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number: The flowers are just the beginning. We have so much to discuss, Mei. Twenty-five years is a long time to be apart.
Mei’s hands shook as she read the message. She should delete it, block the number, call Damien’s security team.
But she found herself typing back instead: Leave us alone. Please. Whatever you want, whatever you think you’re owed.....just leave us alone.
The response came immediately: I want to meet her. I want to meet our daughter. Is that so unreasonable? A father wanting to know his child?
You gave up that right when you tried to control every aspect of my life. When you made me feel like I was drowning. When you made it clear that my only value was as a vessel for your heir.
I was young. Intense. I’ve changed, Mei. Twenty-five years changes a person.
Has it changed you enough to respect my wishes? To leave Aria alone if I ask you to?
A longer pause this time. Then: No. I’ve spent twenty-five years looking for you. For her. I’m not walking away now. But I’m not the man I was, Mei. I’m not going to force anything. I just want a chance. One meeting. Let her decide if she wants to know me.
And if she doesn’t?
Then I’ll disappear again. I promise. One meeting. That’s all I’m asking.
Mei stared at the message, her heart pounding. Part of her wanted to refuse outright, to protect Aria from Alexander the way she’d been protecting her for twenty-five years.
But another part....a tired part that had been running and hiding for so long....wondered if it was time to stop.
Aria was an adult now. Strong, independent, capable of making her own decisions. Maybe she deserved the chance to meet her biological father, to decide for herself whether she wanted him in her life.
Or maybe that was exactly what Alexander wanted Mei to think.
I need time, Mei typed. Time to think. Time to talk to Aria about this properly. Don’t contact me again until I reach out to you. If you truly respect me, if you truly want a chance, you’ll give me that.
You have one week, came the response. One week to think, to talk to Aria, to decide. After that, I’ll be in New York. And we’ll have this conversation face to face, whether you’re ready or not.
Mei deleted the messages with shaking hands and set her phone down.
Alexander was coming to New York.
In one week, her carefully constructed life of safety and anonymity would end.
And Aria...her brilliant, strong, beautiful daughter....would meet the man she had tried so hard to keep her safe from.
Mei looked at the flowers again and felt tears stream down her face.
She’d run twenty-five years ago to protect Aria.
But now she wondered if running had been enough.
Or if the past she’d tried so desperately to escape was finally catching up to them both.
