CHAPTER FIVE: Six Years Later, He Found Me

ARIA

SIX YEARS LATER

Six years ago I ran from Damian Sinclair with nothing except a suitcase and a secret.

Six years later, Damian found me…

“Five more minutes, Mum,” Luna mumbles into her pillow.

“Five more minutes was ten minutes ago.” I pull the curtain open. Sunlight floods the room. “Get up, Luna. Cereal’s getting soggy.”

She frowns. “But I like it soggy.”

“You do not.”

She groans and drags herself upright, hair sticking up on one side, and I already know this argument is over because she’s grinning.

Downstairs I am pouring milk when the television in the living room catches my ear. I hadn’t even meant to turn it on. Luna must have done it while I was upstairs.

“Sinclair Cove Resort collapse continues to dominate the headlines this week, following reports that a seven-year-old remains in critical condition after a balcony railing failure.”

Pause.

“Sinclair Group CEO, Damian Sinclair insists the inspection was completed before the accident…”

“Liar.”

I grab the remote and change the channel.

“Mum,” Luna frowns, spoon halfway to her mouth. “I was watching that.”

“Yeah. But it is sad for the boy. Bad news, and I don’t want that for us this morning.”

I return to turning the tea in the cup.

“Mum, who is Damian Sinclair?”

I freeze with the remote still in my hand.

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“It’s on, like, every channel.”

“Eat your cereal.”

She shrugs it off easily with innocence, but I stand there a second longer, my heart going harder because of a name on the television screen.

My phone buzzes. A W******p text from Sonia.

“Court 9? I’ll grab Luna after school, same as always.”

I read the text with a smile on my lip. After what happened with Victoria, I had thought I would not be able to trust again. But Sonia constantly proves me wrong.

“You’re a lifesaver. Owe you dinner.”

“You always say that and never pay.”

I laugh under my breath and set the phone down. Sonia covered pickup more times than I can count in six years. The one person in this city who knows exactly what I ran from.

“Mummy.” Luna’s spoon hovers over her bowl. “Are you winning today?”

I pat her shoulder. “Hopefully, honey.”

Luna always has a way of brightening my day.

“Yesterday you said the judge was a nightmare.”

I stare in surprise. “I said that to myself in the car. Where you weren’t supposed to be listening.”

She grins around a mouthful of cereal.

I press a kiss to the top of her head. “Regardless, honey, I hope to win.”

“Good luck, Mummy.”

We hasten up and move out for the day.

The courthouse is crowded with reporters by the time I arrive, cameras angled towards the entrance. For one second, I am unaware they are here for me.

“Attorney Cole!”

“Was AstraPoint settlement really 320 million?”

“How does it feel beating three senior partners?”

I don’t stop walking.

“Are the rumours true another Fortune 500 company wants to settle before facing you?”

I grant the press a little time before I move for the business of the day.

Inside, opposing counsel—a man twice my years in practice raises a file towards the bench.

“Your Honour, my client’s safety record is well documented.”

I stand. “It is. I’ve read it. Page eleven, paragraph four clearly shows that the inspection your client cites as proof of compliance was conducted the week after my client was injured, not before.”

The counsel's smile falters. “That’s it? I will need to confirm that.”

“Please do. I will wait.”

He doesn’t confirm; instead, he seeks an adjournment, which the judge grants.

Outside, a colleague from another firm steps beside me, smirking. “You hear Sinclair’s in trouble now too? Whole city’s talking about it. Somebody ought to do to them what you did to AstraPoint.”

I smile. “I heard.”

I don’t slow down or look back. Because if I stop walking, I will have to stop pretending Sinclair's name means nothing.

My assistant catches up to me, beaming. “You are becoming a celebrity, attorney.”

I chuckle, flattered.

“The only woman who bankrupted the great AstraPoint Company!”

She throws her hands up, laughing. I don’t answer, but I am laughing too by the time we reach the car.  

At the coffee shop across the street, waiting for my order, the television above the counter is running the same story again.

“Sinclair Group has declined every request for settlement…”

I turn my back to it and stare at the menu board until my name is called.

That evening, I set up the laptop on the dining table after Luna’s asleep and dial the number that has never left my head in six years, the number that kept me awake studying for a law degree between shifts, reading case files at four in the morning on nothing but stubbornness.

Each time I remember the chain of incidents that led to him lying on the hospital bed, and I had to leave, my chest tightens painfully.

The screen flickers and the call connects, then his face appears, one side of his mouth still slower to move than the other.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Aria. How are you, my daughter?”

“I’m okay,” I tell him, “work’s good. Luna has been performing excellently in school too. “

The corner of his mouth that still moves, moves.

“I’m missing you,” I say. “I’m going to visit soon, Dad. I promise.”

My voice almost betrays me. Because I have said that every month for six years, but I am never able to keep to it.

When the call ends, I sit at the table a while longer, staring at the black screen where his face just was. Then I put my head down on my arms and let myself cry, quietly, so it doesn’t reach the room where Luna’s sleeping.

I don’t do this in front of anyone. For six years, I shield the tears and appear strong instead.

My phone rings while I’m still wiping my face. Evelyn. She doesn’t call this late unless it matters.

I let it ring twice before I answer.

“Hi, Eve.”

“Aria, we just landed the viral negligence case making headlines.

I pause. “Against Sinclair Group?”

“Yes.”

Something in my chest goes very cold.

“You’re the lead counsel.”

“No.”

“Aria—”

“I said no, Evelyn. Please find someone else.”

“There isn’t someone else. The family asked for you by name.”

I grip the phone tighter. “Because of AstraPoint.”

“Yes.”

My father’s words manage to come back to me at that moment.

“Never believe you are less because they have money.”

For the first time since he collapsed at the altar, I wondered if I had finally become the woman he believed I could be.

“And there’s something else,” Evelyn says.

I snap back to reality.

“Yes?”

“I already filed for expedited mediation earlier in the day when you didn’t call back. I didn’t think you would.”

“Evelyn—”

“The order’s been signed, Aria.”

I close my eyes.

“You and Damian Sinclair will be sitting across the same table in forty-eight hours.”