MY LONG LOST LOVE

Chapter 1 — The Girl Who Loved Speed

The roar of the motorcycle engine was the only thing Miyaka Reyes trusted completely.

It never asked questions.

It never demanded explanations.

It never cared about the mistakes she had made, the people she had lost, or the memories she had spent years trying to bury beneath noise and speed. When she twisted the throttle and felt the machine respond beneath her, everything else disappeared. The world became nothing more than asphalt stretching endlessly ahead, the wind tearing against her jacket, and the steady rhythm of her own heartbeat.

Fast.

Faster.

Don't think.

That was the rule.

Miyaka leaned forward as the motorcycle screamed down the track, her eyes fixed on the curve approaching ahead. The other racers were close behind her, their engines roaring like angry beasts, but she barely heard them. She had learned a long time ago that hesitation was more dangerous than speed.

The curve came closer.

She lowered herself.

The motorcycle tilted.

For one brief second, the world seemed to turn sideways.

Then she was through.

Miyaka smiled beneath her helmet.

That feeling.

That beautiful, terrifying feeling of almost losing control.

It was the closest thing she had ever found to freedom.

She accelerated again.

The finish line appeared ahead.

The crowd erupted.

Miyaka crossed it first.

She slowed down only after the final marker, allowing the motorcycle to roll toward the pit area while the sound of cheering followed her.

She pulled off her helmet, releasing her long hair from beneath it. Sweat clung to her forehead, and her breathing was still uneven from the race.

“Again?” a familiar voice called.

Miyaka turned.

Jason Rivera was leaning against the pit wall with his arms crossed.

He looked completely unimpressed.

Miyaka grinned.

“What?”

“You almost crashed.”

“But I didn't.”

“You almost died.”

“But I didn't.”

Jason sighed.

“One day, Miyaka, you're going to give me a heart attack.”

She laughed as she removed her gloves.

“You've been saying that since we were kids.”

“And you've been ignoring me since we were kids.”

“That sounds like a you problem.”

Jason shook his head, but there was a smile hiding at the corner of his mouth.

Some things never changed.

They had known each other for most of their lives. Long before the motorcycles, the competitions, the crowds, and the reputation Miyaka had built for herself, there had been three children running through a grassy field.

Three inseparable friends.

Miyaka.

Jason.

And Moises.

The thought came so suddenly that Miyaka's smile disappeared.

Moises.

She hated that his name could still do that to her.

One memory.

One name.

One heartbeat.

And suddenly she wasn't standing beside a racing motorcycle anymore.

She was eight years old again.

She could almost smell the grass after the rain.

She could hear Jason laughing.

She could see Moises sitting beneath the old mango tree, holding a book in his lap while Miyaka complained that reading was boring.

She could hear his voice.

“You don't have to like reading, Miyaka.”

“Good.”

“You just have to stop throwing my books into the river.”

“I only did it once.”

“Three times.”

She had laughed.

He had smiled.

And she had never known that one day those memories would become the most painful things she carried.

“Miyaka?”

Jason's voice pulled her back.

She blinked.

“What?”

“You disappeared again.”

She looked away.

“I'm fine.”

Jason studied her carefully.

He knew better.

He had always known better.

But he didn't push.

That was one of the reasons Miyaka had never been able to completely shut him out.

He knew when to speak.

And he knew when silence was kinder.

“Come on,” Jason said eventually. “Your celebration dinner is waiting.”

“I don't need a celebration dinner.”

“You won.”

“I win all the time.”

“That doesn't mean you don't get fed.”

Miyaka laughed.

“Fine.”

They started walking away from the track.

For a few minutes, she managed to forget.

Then Jason said something that made her stop.

“By the way…”

Miyaka glanced at him.

“What?”

“I heard something today.”

Her expression changed.

“What kind of something?”

Jason hesitated.

“About the Laurent family.”

The world seemed to become quieter.

Miyaka stared at him.

She hadn't heard that name spoken aloud in years.

Laurent.

A family name.

A company.

A childhood.

A wound.

She swallowed.

“What about them?”

Jason looked at her carefully.

“They're coming back.”

Miyaka's fingers tightened around the helmet she was holding.

“Who?”

Jason didn't answer immediately.

He didn't need to.

Something inside her already knew.

The past had a way of finding people who thought they had escaped it.

And somewhere deep inside the part of Miyaka Reyes she had spent years trying to silence, an eight-year-old girl was suddenly awake again.

Waiting beneath a mango tree.

Waiting for a boy who had promised he would come back.

Moises Laurent.

The boy she had loved before she even understood what love was.

The boy who had disappeared without saying goodbye.

The boy she had spent years pretending she had forgotten.

Jason finally spoke.

“Moises Laurent.”

Miyaka stopped breathing.

For the first time in years, speed couldn't save her.

Because the past had finally caught up with her.