Chapter Two - Five Years Too Late

Mia didn’t look back.

She wanted to.

God, she wanted to.

Every step toward the exit felt heavier than the one before it, but she kept her eyes ahead and her fingers locked around Noah’s.

“Mommy.”

She kept walking.

“Mommy.”

“What?”

“You’re hurting my hand.”

Mia immediately loosened her grip.

“Sorry.”

Noah rubbed his fingers.

“You’re scared.”

Mia stopped.

The airport doors were only a few feet away. Beyond them, she could already see Aunt Claire’s car waiting at the curb.

She looked down at her son.

“What makes you say that?”

“You hold my hand like that when you’re scared.”

Mia stared at him.

Sometimes she forgot how much Noah noticed.

“I’m not scared.”

He tilted his head.

“You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Lying.”

A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

“Who taught you that?”

“You did.”

“Apparently, I taught you too well.”

Noah smiled.

Then his expression changed.

“Was that the man you told me about?”

Mia’s smile vanished.

“What man?”

“The one at the airport.”

Her heart stumbled.

She crouched in front of him.

“Noah, listen to me.”

He waited.

“If you see that man again, you stay with me.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

Mia almost sighed.

Seven years old.

Seven going on seventeen.

She brushed a curl away from his forehead.

“You don’t need to worry about him.”

“But you worry about him.”

Mia didn’t answer.

Because he was right.

She did.

More than she wanted to admit.

She had spent five years convincing herself that Alexander Kane was part of her past.

Yet one glimpse of him had brought back memories she’d thought she’d buried deep enough never to find again.

His voice.

His eyes.

The way he’d looked at her.

It had been five years, but somehow her heart had recognized him before her mind had caught up.

“Mia!”

She looked up.

Claire was hurrying toward them.

The older woman pulled Mia into a tight embrace.

For several seconds, Mia simply stood there.

“You came,” Claire whispered.

“You said I had to.”

“I said you should.”

Mia pulled away.

Claire looked at her carefully.

“You look tired.”

“I’ve been on a plane for nine hours.”

“That isn’t what I mean.”

Mia knew exactly what she meant.

“I’m fine.”

Claire’s gaze moved toward the airport doors.

“Did you see him?”

Mia didn’t need to ask who.

“Yes.”

Claire’s face tightened.

“And?”

“And nothing.”

“Mia.”

“What did you expect me to do? Collapse?”

“No.”

“Then I’m fine.”

Claire looked at Noah.

The little boy was examining the toy car in his hand.

Then she lowered her voice.

“Does he know?”

Mia’s stomach twisted.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“He asked his name.”

Claire went silent.

Mia looked at her.

“He doesn’t know.”

“But he saw Noah.”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I don’t know.”

That was the part that frightened her.

Because Alexander had looked at Noah.

Not casually.

Not the way strangers looked at children.

He had studied him.

As if something about the boy had caught his attention.

Mia picked up her suitcase.

“We need to go.”

Claire nodded.

“Your mother is expecting us.”

Mia stopped.

“She’s here?”

“She arrived yesterday.”

Of course she had.

Nothing in this family happened quietly.

Mia looked toward the airport one last time.

Alexander was nowhere in sight.

Good.

She turned away.

She didn’t see the man standing behind the glass doors several meters away.

Alexander watched her leave.

He didn’t know why he was still standing there.

He should have walked away.

He should have gotten into his car and forgotten about the encounter.

Instead, he remained still.

His assistant approached cautiously.

“Sir, your car is ready.”

Alexander didn’t respond.

“Sir?”

“Find out who the boy is.”

His assistant blinked.

“The boy?”

“The one who ran into me.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know him.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why—”

“Just find out.”

His assistant hesitated.

“Do you know his name?”

Alexander looked toward the doors Mia had disappeared through.

“Noah.”

He said the name slowly.

Testing it.

Something about it bothered him.

Not the name itself.

The timing.

The age.

The resemblance.

He pulled out his phone.

“Also find out when Mia left the country.”

His assistant frowned.

“I thought that was five years ago.”

“I know.”

“Then what exactly am I looking for?”

Alexander’s eyes hardened.

“Everything.”

⸻

By the time Mia reached her mother’s house, the sky had turned gray.

Rain was coming.

She sat quietly in the back seat while Noah pressed his forehead against the window, fascinated by the traffic.

Claire sat beside her.

For several minutes, neither woman spoke.

Then Claire said quietly, “You shouldn’t have come.”

Mia looked at her.

“I know.”

“You could have sent your condolences.”

“I know.”

“You could have stayed away from him.”

“I didn’t know he’d be at the airport.”

“That isn’t what I mean.”

Mia looked out the window.

“I needed to come.”

Claire sighed.

“Why?”

Mia didn’t answer immediately.

Because the truth was complicated.

The person whose funeral they were attending had once been one of the few people who had known the truth about her marriage.

One of the few people who had tried to help her.

And Mia owed him a final goodbye.

“I couldn’t let him be buried without seeing him,” she said eventually.

Claire nodded.

Then she looked at Noah.

“He’s grown so much.”

Mia smiled faintly.

“He has.”

Claire’s expression softened.

“Does he still ask about his father?”

Mia’s smile disappeared.

“Sometimes.”

“What do you tell him?”

“The same thing.”

“That you don’t know where he is?”

Mia stared at the rain beginning to streak across the window.

“No.”

Claire looked at her.

“I tell him his father is someone he doesn’t need to know.”

The words sounded cruel when spoken aloud.

Mia hated them.

But they were necessary.

At least, that’s what she had told herself for seven years.

Then she remembered Alexander’s face at the airport.

The way he had looked at Noah.

Her stomach tightened.

For the first time, Mia wondered whether five years of hiding had only delayed the inevitable.

Because Alexander Kane was no longer a man she could simply run away from.

And tomorrow, they would be standing in the same room.

At the same funeral.

Surrounded by the people who knew exactly what had happened between them.

Mia closed her eyes.

Tomorrow couldn’t come quickly enough.

Or perhaps—

it couldn’t come slowly enough.