Chapter 209: Chapter 210: You Are Stuck With Me
She reached up and touched his face, her palm warm against his cheek. "I love you. Whatever happens with my father, whatever he thinks or says or tries to do...that doesn’t change. You know that, right?"
"I know that intellectually." Damien turned his head to kiss her palm. "Emotionally, I’m still working on believing it fully. Especially when faced with a biological father who’s been searching for you for twenty-four years and probably has very strong opinions about the man you’re with."
"Then let me be very clear." Aria’s voice was soft but absolutely certain. "I don’t care what his opinions are. I don’t care if he approves or disapproves. I don’t care if he thinks I should be with someone different, someone Chinese, someone from his world, whatever criteria he might have. I’m with you because I choose to be with you. And no one....not my biological father, not anyone.....gets to tell me that choice is wrong."
Damien pulled her against his chest, his arms wrapping around her tightly. "I don’t deserve you."
"Probably not," she agreed, her voice muffled against his shirt. "But you’re stuck with me anyway."
They stood like that for several minutes, holding each other in the flower-scented apartment while Mei slept peacefully in her chair.
Finally, Damien pulled back enough to look at her face. "I should go. Let you get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."
"Tomorrow," Aria repeated. "When you pick me up, can we talk about where to have this meeting? I need to choose a location that feels... controllable. Safe. Somewhere I have the advantage."
"We can talk about it in the car. Marcus will have several suggestions by then....places that can be secured easily, that give us good sightlines and exit strategies."
"You make it sound like we’re planning a military operation."
"We are planning a military operation." Damien’s voice was serious. "Your father might be genuine in his intentions. He might truly just want to meet you and nothing more. But until we know that for certain, we plan for every contingency."
Aria nodded slowly. "Okay. That makes sense."
Damien kissed her forehead, then her nose, then her lips.....gentle and lingering. "Get some sleep. I’ll be here at seven to pick you up."
"Seven is early."
"I want extra time to sweep your route to the hospital. Make sure there are no surprises."
"You really are treating this like a military operation."
"Because it is one." He kissed her again. "Lock the door behind me. Don’t open it for anyone except me or Marcus or someone we send with the correct code phrase."
"What’s the code phrase?"
"I’ll text it to you after I leave. Changes every twelve hours."
Aria shook her head with a slight smile. "You’re ridiculous."
"I’m thorough. There’s a difference." He headed for the door.
After he left, Aria locked the door as instructed and returned to her mother’s side. Mei was still sleeping, her breathing even and steady, the worst of her fear apparently exhausted for the moment.
Aria sat on the floor beside the chair, her head resting against her mother’s knee, and let herself feel the full weight of everything that was happening.
Her father was in New York. Wanted to meet her. Had spent twenty-four years searching for her.
*****
TWO DAYS LATER
Damien sat in his study with Marcus, three computer screens displaying different databases and information streams about Alexander Wei. They’d been at this for four hours and what they’d found was both impressive and concerning.
"He’s clean," Marcus said, scrolling through yet another financial database. "Cleaner than anyone with that much money has any right to be. No criminal record anywhere. No documented legal disputes beyond standard business litigation. His companies pass every regulatory audit. His employees have above-average satisfaction ratings. His philanthropic work is extensive and appears genuine."
"Which means either he’s actually reformed," Damien said, "or he’s simply better at hiding his controlling tendencies than he was twenty-five years ago."
Marcus pulled up another file. "I spoke with three of my contacts in Southeast Asia.....people who work in security for companies that have dealt with Wei International. They all say the same thing: Alexander Wei is demanding, exacting, expects absolute excellence from everyone around him. But he’s also fair, pays extremely well, and has incredibly loyal employees who’ve been with him for decades."
"That doesn’t tell us anything about how he treats people he considers family."
"No, it doesn’t." Marcus switched screens. "What does tell us something is this: he’s been married twice since Mei left. First marriage lasted eight years, ended amicably, no children. Second marriage lasted five years, also ended amicably, also no children. Both ex-wives speak well of him publicly....no accusations of abuse, no restraining orders, no hidden legal battles."
Damien absorbed this information silently. On paper, Alexander Wei looked like exactly the kind of man any parent would want their daughter to meet. Successful, stable, apparently evolved from whoever he’d been in his mid-twenties when he’d driven Mei to run.
But paper didn’t tell the whole story.
"What about the surveillance?" Damien asked. "How sophisticated was it?"
Marcus pulled up the photograph Alexander had sent to Mei.....Aria walking out of Metropolitan General, completely unaware she was being watched.
"Professional equipment. Telephoto lens, probably 300mm or higher. The angle suggests he was positioned approximately 150 meters away, possibly on a rooftop or high floor of the building across the street." Marcus zoomed in on the image quality. "This wasn’t taken with a phone camera. This was deliberate, planned surveillance with expensive equipment."
"So either he hired professionals to watch her...."
"Or he did it himself with equipment he already knows how to use." Marcus pulled up another file. "Alexander Wei has a documented interest in photography. Has donated to several photography museums, sponsors emerging photographers in Asia. It’s entirely possible he took these photos himself."
Damien stood and walked to the windows overlooking the estate grounds. Outside, the grounds were dark except for the subtle landscape lighting. Peaceful. Secure. Nothing like the chaos of threats converging from multiple directions.
"What’s your assessment?" he asked Marcus without turning around.
Marcus was quiet for a moment, considering. "Objectively? Alexander Wei appears to be a successful, relatively stable man who has spent twenty-five years searching for a daughter he knew for two months. The surveillance is concerning but could be explained as the desperate action of someone who found what he’d been looking for and couldn’t help himself."
"And subjectively?"
"Subjectively? I don’t trust him. Anyone that rich, that powerful, that accustomed to controlling entire business empires....they don’t just turn off that need for control when it comes to personal relationships. Especially with something as emotionally charged as a daughter he’s been obsessed with finding for two and a half decades."
Damien nodded slowly. "My assessment as well."
"What do you want me to do, boss?"
"Maximum security for the meeting. I want our people everywhere....visible and invisible. I want eyes on every entrance and exit. I want technical surveillance in case anything goes wrong. And I want a full background team ready to intervene if necessary."
"You think he’ll try something?"
"I think he’s desperate. And desperate people.....even reformed, genuinely changed desperate people....sometimes make very bad decisions." Damien turned from the window. "How’s Aria?"
"Last check, she was in your bedroom reading medical journals. Seb says she seems calm but distracted."
"She’s processing." Damien moved toward the door. "Keep digging into Alexander Wei. I want to know everything....not just the public persona, but the private man. Talk to his ex-wives if you can reach them discreetly. Talk to employees who’ve left his companies. Find out who he really is beneath the success story."
"Yes, sir. And boss?" Marcus looked up from his screens. "Whatever happens at this meeting....wherever Miss Chen decides to hold it.....we’ll keep her safe. He won’t get near her without us knowing about it."
"I know." Damien paused at the door. "But Marcus, this isn’t like the other threats we’ve dealt with. This is her father. She has a right to meet him without feeling like she’s in danger. So we protect her, but we do it in a way that doesn’t make her feel suffocated."
"Understood."
Damien left the study and made his way upstairs to the bedroom. He found Aria exactly where Marcus said she’d be.....sitting against the headboard with a medical journal open on her lap, but her eyes were staring at nothing, clearly not reading.
She looked up when he entered, and the expression on her face was so complicated he couldn’t begin to untangle it.
"Can’t sleep?" he asked, closing the door behind him.
"Can’t shut my brain off." She set the journal aside. "Every time I close my eyes, I see that photograph. Me, walking out of the hospital, completely unaware someone was watching. And I keep thinking....what else did he see? What else does he know about my life that I don’t know he knows?"
Damien crossed to the bed and sat beside her, pulling her against his chest in the way that had become natural for both of them. She came willingly, her head resting over his heart.
"Marcus has been investigating him," Damien said. "Everything we can find suggests he’s genuinely reformed. Successful businesses, amicable divorces, no history of violence or control issues in his recent relationships. He looks, on paper at least, like a man who’s changed."
"But you don’t trust him."
It wasn’t a question. She knew him well enough to read the reservations he was trying not to voice.
"I don’t trust anyone who’s that desperate for something," Damien said honestly. "Twenty-five years of searching, Aria. That’s not casual interest in a child he briefly knew. That’s obsession. And obsession....even well-intentioned obsession.....can be dangerous."
