Chapter 2: Ghosts of the Past

Ariana Pov:

The rain was relentless that summer, the kind that soaked through your bones and left you shivering even in July.

I was sixteen, standing in the doorway of my father’s study, watching him unravel. The news was everywhere, headlines screaming Blake Enterprises Embroiled in Fraud Scandal, Richard Blake’s Betrayal Rocks Corporate World.

I didn’t understand the details then, just the way his shoulders slumped, the way his hands shook as he poured another whiskey.

“Ariana,” he’d said, his voice rough, like he’d been shouting for hours. “This isn’t your fault. None of it is.” But his eyes, those warm brown eyes that used to light up when he talked about his dreams for the company, were hollow. Broken.

He looked at me like he was memorizing my face, like he knew he was about to lose me too.

That was the last time I saw him before the police came. Before the cameras. Before the world decided the Blakes were poison.

I blinked, and the memory dissolved, leaving me in the dim light of our cramped apartment living room.

The rain outside is softer now, a drizzle tapping against the window, but it feels like that summer all over again.

My hands are still shaking from the boardroom, from Damien Voss’s smug smile and that impossible deal.

Work for him. Be his personal assistant. Sell my soul to save what’s left of my father’s dream.

“Ariana, you can’t seriously be considering this!” My mother’s voice snaps me back, sharp and jagged, like broken glass.

Veronica Blake is pacing the room, her heels clicking on the worn hardwood floor. She’s still in her Chanel suit, but the elegance is fraying at the edges, her lipstick smudged, her hair slipping from its perfect bun.

“Damien Voss is a monster. He’s playing with you, just like his father played with your father.”

I’m sitting on the couch, my knees pulled up, the folder from the meeting still clutched in my lap.

My sister, Lily, is curled up beside me, her eighteen-year-old frame small and fragile, like she’s trying to disappear. Her dark hair falls over her face, hiding the tears I know are there. She hasn’t said a word since we got home, but her silence is louder than Mom’s shouting.

“I don’t have a choice,” I said, my voice quieter than I meant it to be. “If I don’t take the deal, he’ll gut Blake Enterprises. Fifty families, Mom. Fifty people who believed in Dad, who stayed even after everything fell apart. I can’t let them down.”

“You’re letting us down!” Mom stops pacing, her eyes blazing. “You’re walking into his trap, Ariana. He doesn’t want to save the company, he wants to humiliate you. To humiliate us. After everything we’ve been through, you’re going to let that man….”

“Stop it!” The words rip out of me, raw and jagged, and I’m on my feet before I realize it. The folder falls to the floor, papers scattering like leaves.

My chest is tight, my eyes are burning, and I can’t hold it in anymore.

“Don’t you get it? I’m doing this because of everything we’ve been through! Because I’m tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of being the disgraced Blake heiress who lost everything!”

Lily flinches, her hands twisting in her lap, and I hate myself for shouting, but the dam’s broken.

“Dad’s gone, Mom. He’s gone, and we’re still paying for it. The whispers, the looks, the way people cross the street when they see us. I can’t keep living like this, like we’re ghosts. Blake Enterprises is all I have left of him. It’s his dream, his heart, and I won’t let Damien Voss take it away!”

My voice cracks, and the tears come, hot and unstoppable, streaming down my face.

I’m shaking, my hands balled into fists, and I wanted to scream, to break something, to make the world feel the weight of what’s been stolen from us.

“You think I want to work for him? To sit at his desk, take his orders, smile while he smirks like he’s won? I don’t. But if that’s what it takes to keep Dad’s name alive, to give those families a chance, then I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

The room is silent except for the rain and the soft, choked sound of Lily crying. She’s looking at me now, her eyes wide and red, and it breaks my heart all over again.

She was only ten when the scandal hit, too young to remember Dad’s laughter, his late-night stories about building something that mattered.

She only knows the aftermath, the foreclosure, the paparazzi, the way we moved from our mansion to this two-bedroom apartment with peeling paint and a leaky faucet.

“Ari,” she whispers, her voice trembling. “What if you can’t do it? What if he hurts you?”

Her words cut deeper than Mom’s anger. I knelt in front of her, taking her hands in mine. They’re cold, trembling, and I squeezed them tightly, like I can hold her together.

“He won’t,” I said, even though I’m not sure I believe it. “I’m stronger than he thinks, Lily. And I’m doing this for you, too. So you don’t have to grow up in the shadow of all this. So you can have a future that’s yours, not his.”

She shakes her head, tears spilling over.

“I don’t care about the company. I just want you to be okay. I don’t want to lose you too.”

Her words are a knife to my chest, and I pull her into my arms, holding her as she sobs against my shoulder.

She’s so small, so fragile, and I feel the weight of being her big sister, her protector, in a world that’s been anything but kind.

“You won’t lose me,” I whispered, my own tears soaking into her hair. “I promise, Lily. I’m not going anywhere.”

Mom’s watching us, her arms crossed, her face a storm of emotions, anger, fear, and something softer, something like grief.

“Ariana,” she says, quieter now, “this isn’t just about the company. It’s about what he represents. The Voss family destroyed us. Your father….” Her voice breaks, and she looks away, her hand pressing against her mouth.

I know what she’s not saying. Dad didn’t just lose the company. He lost himself. The scandal broke him, and the heart attack that took him six months later was just the final blow. Mom blames the Vosses, Damien’s father, specifically, for pushing him over the edge. And maybe she’s right. But I can’t let that hate consume me. Not when there’s still something left to save.

“I know what he represents,” I said, standing to face her, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. “But I’m not Dad. I’m not going to let Damien break me. And I’m not going to let you talk me out of this. I start work tomorrow, and that’s final.”

Mom’s eyes narrowed, but there’s no fight left in her voice.

“You’re making a mistake,” she said, but it’s soft, almost defeated. She turns and walks to her bedroom, the door closing with a quiet click that feels louder than a slam.

Lily’s still holding my hand, her grip tight.

“Ari,” she said, her voice small. “Are you sure?”

I looked at her, at the fear in her eyes, and I forced a smile I didn’t feel. “I’m sure,” I lied. “Get some sleep, okay? Tomorrow’s a new day.”

She nods, but she doesn’t believe me. Neither do I.

Later, alone in my room, I stood at the window, watching the rain streak down the glass.

The city lights blur in the distance, a reminder of the world I used to belong to. A world of galas and private jets, of a father who called me his princess and promised me the stars. Now, all I have is a fading name and a deal with a man who wants to destroy me.

Damien Voss. His face flashes in my mind, those cold blue eyes, that sharp jaw, the way his voice dipped when he said my name, like he was tasting it.

I hate him. I hate the way he makes my pulse race, the way my body betrays me with every glance. But most of all, I hate that he’s right. Breaking me would be easy. Too easy.

I pressed my forehead against the cool glass, my breath fogging the window. Tomorrow, I’ll walk into his office, into his world, and I’ll face him. Not as the broken heiress, not as my father’s daughter, but as Ariana Blake. A fighter and a survivor. The woman who’s going to take back everything he thinks he’s won.

And if my heart races a little too fast at the thought of seeing him again, if my dreams tonight are filled with his voice, his eyes, his danger, well, that’s a secret I’ll take to my grave.