Chapter 3: Three Years Later

Aria La Belle is charged with a DUI homicide and spent time both behind bars and doing community service. Meanwhile, Lucas was in and out of hospitals for regular checkups on his amnesia which showed no improvement other than his family and the Augustine Company. Everything except for Aria, even the awful way he bullied her back in high school was a forgotten memory. Within the last three years, Lucas’s father had passed away, and because of Lucas’s condition, Davis became the new CEO while Lucas became the head director. 

The Songbird’s dreams shattered along with her reputation and career to the point her friendship with her bandmates faded away too. Now she was an advertising agent for a company owned by Roxanne’s friend, someone who enjoyed making life hard on Aria just as much as her rival did. And Lucas was unaware of it all because nobody told him anything about Aria. The day Lucas was diagnosed with amnesia, David told Mason to never tell him about the woman he met at the concert. 

Being the head director, most of Lucas’s jobs were to promote the company’s success. And the longer Lucas works under Davis, the more and more his uncle seems to act differently around him. He was no longer that caring, kindhearted uncle with sweet words of encouragement. Now he was more direct and curt. His father’s twin brother makes it very clear what he wants though he never says it out loud. But Lucas has finally started to get the feeling that Davis has always desired the seat of CEO. It shouldn’t be surprising since he knew he’d never get the seat of a king but at the same time… It made Lucas uncomfortable and Mason felt the same. Not to mention that Lucas’s share in money was still higher than Davis's, which only makes him more wary. But surely his uncle wouldn’t try to steal everything of worth, right…? 

Lucas was uncertain. One thing he did know as an obvious fact is that his uncle has always desired the position of CEO. And now that he’s got it, his true colors are showing. The cruel reality is that his uncle never loved him, it was fake the whole time. But he and Mason keep their suspicions to themselves. What good would it do if they voiced their opinions? Other directors on the board seemed particularly close to Davis and it would be no surprise if they would always take his side. If only it wasn’t for the damned amnesia, maybe his lost memories would give him an edge on what’s going on beneath the cold water’s surface.

Trying his best to ignore the Augustine Company’s inner conflicts, Lucas does his best to focus on his work. Lucas went off to the company of one of Roxanne’s friends. But the red-haired singer was also a forgotten memory, even the name didn’t ring a bell. 

Lucas walks into the front office of the smaller company to meet with the agent he had talked to on the phone an hour ago. The glass door chimes to announce that someone has just walked in. “Hello?” He calls out since there is nobody in the lobby. It was like a ghost town compared to the Augustine Company which could easily be defined as a beehive with a bunch of working bees and little honey in return.

“Be right there!” Calls a feminine voice that finally introduces herself as she hurries into the lobby. As soon as she came face to face with the man she was supposed to meet with, her jaw dropped with the stack of files she had in her hands. The woman was Aria and she was shocked, she hadn’t even recognized his voice on the phone. Lucas gave a confused tilt of his head, her apparent surprise left him muddled.

“O- oh… um,” Aria clears her throat while quickly picking up all of her files. “Long time no see…” She quietly and hesitantly says her words without looking him in the eyes. Once again she was wearing her glasses and her long black hair up in a bun. It felt like they were back in high school except her hands were full of papers and files instead of books. Aria instinctively prepared for a brutal insult but when she didn’t get one, she looked back up at him expectedly only to see how perplexed he looked.

“Do I know you?” He finally asks. Aria becomes more surprised by his chosen words but then feels a rarely-felt burning fire within her. He dared to leave her hanging and not speak to her for three years then pretend like he doesn’t know her when they meet by pure chance?

Aria ignores his question. It felt too similar to how he used to bully her in high school and she’d instead not turn the memory into trauma by dwelling on it for too long. “What can I help you with?”

“I’m Lucas Augustine, head director from the Augustine Company. I was hoping to work with someone more skilled with advertisements since I’m the one with the connections. It’d be great to work with you, Ms.…” Lucas peers at her nametag. “Aria? That’s a beautiful name.” Lucas then proceeds to look the pretty woman up and down and she could spot a bit of a blush on his cheeks as if he was thinking the same thing about her body. He then looks back into her eyes again with a perplexed lift of his brow. “Are you sure we haven’t met before? You look so familiar… do you put yourself in your advertisements?”

Aria’s gray eyes widen as she watches him. Again, she can tell when someone is being genuine. And this truly baffled her. Could it be that he doesn’t remember her?

“Lucas… we went to high school together, don’t you remember?” Aria asks hesitantly since it wasn’t her favorite memory.

Lucas just silently stares at her, the words still not ringing a bell. And Aria’s surprise was starting to turn into worry.

“Lucas, is something wrong? Do you not remember any of this?” Aria finally asks while carefully inspecting him by looking him up and down.

Lucas frowns and rubs the back of his neck while looking away. “Three years ago, I got into a pretty bad car crash. It almost killed me. I don’t remember anything but they think a deer just jumped out in front of me and I lost control of my car. They told me I have amnesia. Thankfully I can remember some things like my family and my company but other memories are still foggy or vague.” He then looks back to Aria. “I take it I knew you in the past then, huh, Aria?...” Lucas’s voice trails off as a brief, faint vision crosses his mind. A memory that flickered like sunlight between tree leaves. He sees her on a stage, singing. Aria felt unnerved when he suddenly stopped moving and just stared at her until finally spoke three words, a name. “Aria… La Belle? Songbird…”

Aria’s eyes widen again when he says her full name and even her stage name, this makes her smile brightly. “You do remember me!”

“I think? It was just a glimpse but- AGH!” Lucas almost buckles over as he grabs his head, a searing headache pulses through his skull without warning.

“LUCAS!” Aria yells and quickly grabs his arm to stabilize him when he haunched before he could collapse. “Are you ok?!” 

“I- I think so…” Lucas winces when he takes a single blink and he runs his hand through his blonde hair as the pulsing slowly subsides. Once he steadies his stance, he gives Aria a small smile. “I take it we got history then, huh?”

Aria was silent for a moment before returning the smile. “Something like that…”

Lucas’s smile then unexpectedly turns affectionate. “I look forward to working with you, Aria.”

“Likewise.” Aria’s voice was sweet but as soon as Lucas looked away, Aria’s kind smile turned sad. Lucas was only treating her like this because he didn’t remember how deep their history ran. Will he back away from her once he remembers everything? Or will he keep treating her this way?

After their day working together on a project for the Augustine Company, Lucas schedules an early appointment with the doctor he sees for his amnesia. He was looking forward to telling him that his memories were finally returning when he met a woman from his past. Though his doctor expresses bliss when Lucas tells him about his progress, the doctor reports to his boss, Davis, as soon as he can. And this news dramatically upsets him. The conniving nature was starting to come to the surface once again. If Lucas recovers all of his memories, then he will be able to steal the seat of the CEO out from beneath him. He knew he had to act fast, and all it took was a phone call. 

That day, Mason came into the CEO’s office when he received that certain phone call from Davis. He was ordered to come in alone without telling anyone, and little did he know that he was about to become a tool.

“Mr. Augustine?” Mason asks the name that he’s been saying for years now. Even after David passed away, he still goes on to say that name. If it wasn’t for Lucas’s amnesia, he’d still be saying that name for the next decade if his best friend had become the CEO instead. Unbeknownst to him was that this was the very reason why he was called into the CEO’s office. The look in Davis’s eyes as he leaned over his desk unnerved him.

“Mr. Miller. I have a task for you. And if you refuse… it’ll be the last refusal you’ll ever make.”