CHAPTER 2 — THE GIRL WHO WAS NEVER LOST
The drive was silent.
A black luxury car cut through the city night, its tinted windows hiding everything from the world outside. Inside, the billionaire sat across from her, not touching her again—just watching.
Like someone afraid she might vanish if he blinked.
She held her hands tightly in her lap.
Old habit. Defensive. Learned.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” he said softly.
Her voice came out barely above a whisper.
“I don’t know you.”
That sentence should have hurt him.
But instead, he nodded—as if he had expected it.
“I know,” he replied. “That’s why I came myself.”
The car stopped at a private estate gate. Massive iron doors opened without a sound.
Lights revealed a mansion too large to feel real.
She didn’t move when the door opened for her.
So he didn’t force her.
He simply said:
“Do you remember a blue room? With painted stars on the ceiling?”
Her breath stopped.
Just for a second.
The smallest crack in her silence.
Inside her mind, something flickered—too fast to hold, too painful to catch.
The girl pressed her fingers to her temple.
“I don’t…”
But her voice broke before she could finish.
The billionaire stepped closer—but still kept distance.
“You were six when you disappeared,” he said. “And I have spent every day since then learning how to find you without destroying what was left of you.”
A long silence.
Then, from behind the mansion doors, another figure appeared.
An older woman.
Tears already in her eyes.
And when she saw the girl—
She whispered one word.
A name.
The girl’s real name.
The one she had not heard in years.
May you like
And for the first time in the night—
The girl collapsed into memory.
