Bella pov
Eight years was a long time to carry a question.
Long enough to build a new life around it.
Long enough to convince yourself that you had stopped caring.
Long enough to learn that some wounds did not heal. They simply became quieter.
Bella Laurent stared through the tinted window of the car as Manhattan rose around her, its glass towers catching the late afternoon light.
New York had changed.
Or maybe she had.
The streets were busier than she remembered. Buildings seemed taller. Everything moved faster, as though the city had continued living while she had spent eight years trying to understand why hers had fallen apart.
Her fingers tightened around the envelope resting on her lap.
Inside was a photocopy of a financial document she had found three nights ago in an old box belonging to her father.
One page.
One signature.
One transaction that should not have existed.
Bella looked down at it again.
October 14.
The date made her stomach tighten.
That was the day everything had begun.
The day millions of dollars had supposedly disappeared from Blackwood International.
The day her father had supposedly betrayed Alexander Blackwood's family.
The day two families had gone from powerful business partners to enemies.
And the day Bella had lost Alex.
She closed her eyes briefly.
She had promised herself she wouldn't think about him.
Not today.
Not after everything.
But memories had never listened to promises.
She remembered Alex before the bitterness.
Before the expensive suits and newspaper headlines.
Before he became the billionaire everyone in New York seemed to know.
She remembered a twenty-six-year-old man who used to sneak away from business meetings just to take her for late-night drives.
A man who knew how she liked her coffee.
A man who once told her that no matter what happened, he would always believe her.
Then their fathers' partnership collapsed.
Her father was accused of stealing millions.
Alex's father publicly condemned him.
Bella's family lost their fortune, their reputation, and nearly their home.
And Alex disappeared from her life without giving her the chance to explain.
She had never forgiven him for that.
She had never forgiven herself for still loving him.
The car slowed outside a towering black-glass building.
Bella looked up.
Her breath caught.
She knew that building.
Everyone in New York did.
Blackwood International.
The headquarters of one of the most powerful corporations in the city.
And the company now belonged to the man she had spent eight years trying not to remember.
Her phone vibrated.
Bella glanced at the screen.
Unknown Number.
She hesitated before answering.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a man's voice came through.
Low.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Welcome back to New York, Bella.”
Her entire body went still.
She knew that voice.
She could have recognized it anywhere.
“Alex.”
There was a pause.
Then, quietly, he said,
“We need to talk.”
Bella looked toward the towering Blackwood International building.
A cold feeling settled in her chest.
“About what?”
Another pause.
“Your father.”
Her grip tightened around the phone.
“What about him?”
“I think you already know.”
Bella glanced down at the envelope on her lap.
For the first time since finding the document, she wondered whether someone else knew she had it.
Then Alex spoke again.
“Come inside.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
His answer came without hesitation.
“Because after eight years, Bella, I finally have a reason to believe your father wasn't the man I thought he was.”
The line went dead.
Bella stared at her phone.
For eight years, she had wanted someone to say those words.
Now that they had finally come from the one man whose opinion had once mattered most, they didn't feel like relief.
They felt like a warning.
She slowly looked up at Blackwood International.
Then she opened the car door.
If Alex Blackwood finally wanted to uncover the truth about her father, she was going to let him.
But he was going to learn something too.
Bella Laurent was no longer the woman he had left behind eight years ago.