Chapter 2 The Name He Couldn't Forget

Damien Aldridge hated feeling powerless.

It was a foreign emotion-something he'd crushed out of himself years ago in boardrooms, courtrooms, and battlefields made of money. But ever since that night in the alley, it kept creeping back.

Not because of the attack.

But because of her.

The girl who saved him. The girl who disappeared.

The girl he couldn't stop thinking about.

He sat at the edge of his penthouse suite in Laurelcrest Hotel, the city lights glittering beyond the glass like stars in a bottle. A thousand feet above the ground, and yet still trapped in memory.

She didn't ask who I was. She didn't want anything.

It made no sense. Everyone always wanted something-especially from a man like Damien.

He pressed a finger to the security image he'd enhanced on his tablet. Blurry. Half her face. Wet strands of hair covering most of it. But the eyes...

Even in bad resolution, they haunted him.

She had looked at him like he was human.

"Mr. Aldridge," came the voice of Reid, his longtime bodyguard, over the intercom.

Damien tapped the receiver. "What is it?"

"We pulled footage from three nearby buildings. None caught her face clearly. But we tracked the direction she ran."

"Show me."

Moments later, a second screen lit up. A grainy figure in a hoodie disappearing around a corner. Then... nothing.

"She vanished after this block," Reid said. "No footage on the next street."

Damien narrowed his eyes. "That street has a hotel, a laundromat, and two closed shops."

"She could work in any of them," Reid offered.

"No," Damien said. "She blends in too well. Like she's had practice."

He tapped the image again.

"Start with the hotel. I want every employee's photo by tomorrow morning."

Meanwhile...

Downstairs in that same hotel, Aria Blake stood behind the housekeeping supply cart, folding fresh towels with trembling fingers.

She hadn't slept since that night.

She kept expecting someone to show up at her door-or worse, at the hospital where her mother was recovering-asking questions she couldn't afford to answer.

Her whole life had been about staying invisible.

And then she had gone and saved a billionaire.

A stupid, reckless thing to do. But his eyes-they hadn't been arrogant. They'd looked tired. Like he carried the whole world and had no one to share it with.

And for one second, she'd seen him. The real him.

And now she couldn't stop thinking about him, either.

"Aria!" Mel's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Hm?"

"You folded the same towel five times," her friend said, smirking. "Still daydreaming about that alley guy?"

Aria flushed. "No. I mean... maybe. I don't know."

Mel narrowed her eyes. "Girl, I've never seen you like this. He must've been something else."

Aria gave her a weak smile. "Let's just say he looked like trouble in a three-piece suit."

Upstairs, Damien was already going through staff photos, one by one.

And then he stopped.

Halfway through the laundry department roster, a face caught his attention.

Blurry. Familiar.

And her name?

Aria Blake.