Chapter 13
Meanwhile, after a day and night of flying, Aria’s plane finally landed.
Her new business partner was already waiting at the airport exit.
He wore a crisp dark suit that accentuated his tall frame and strikingly handsome features–drastically different
from the man Aria remembered.
Yet one thing remained unchanged: the way he looked at her.
“Aria, it’s been a long time,” said Caleb Foster, extending his hand with a smile.
The moment he spoke, Aria experienced a strânge sensation. It felt as if time had suddenly rewound to eight years
ago, back to where everything began.
Back then, she and Caleb were the envy of their college campus–childhood friends who had grown up together, inseparable since their earliest years. They’d spend their free time planning weekend jobs together and discussing their future business venture, debating how they’d split the shares.
Having grown up together, they were each other’s closest confidants during their youth. Both had tacitly assumed they would remain together forever.
But fate had other plans.
From the moment Knox Rivera appeared, Aria and Caleb had drifted apart, never to return to what they once were.
Eight years was enough time to turn even the closest people into strangers just like Aria now.
She didn’t even know how to address this man who had grown up alongside her.
Caleb, by contrast, seemed much more at ease.
He first took Aria to dinner, then showed her to the company they had founded together.
Only now did Aria finally feel a sense of solid ground beneath her feet.
Over the years, she’d had enough of living on the edge of a knife. She had planned to share her thoughts with Knox when the time was right–ideally returning home with him to live as an ordinary couple, away from their langerous lifestyle.
But before she could act on those plans, he had delivered a crushing blow.
When Mila first returned, Caleb had called Aria, saying he was starting a design company and asking if she wanted
o invest.
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Bad Boy Mob Heir: 1 Was His Clone… Now He’s My Puppet!
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Chapter 13
Back then, still clinging to hope for her marriage, so she had declined.
Until two weeks ago, Caleb called again.
This time, Aria accepted without hesitation. She couldn’t bring Knox back, but at least she could reclaim herself.
The company’s design perfectly matched her taste, clearly Caleb’s work.
She and Caleb had studied the same major in college–design.
They had been the closest of partners and each other’s fiercest competitors. So no one understood Caleb’s design style better than she did.
“I never imagined that after all these years, we’d actually achieve the dream we had in college. Are you happy, Aria?” Caleb asked, his eyes bright with enthusiasm.
Aria didn’t answer his question directly, instead studying him silently.
“You’ve changed so much, Caleb.”
The once awkward, uncertain young man who couldn’t maintain eye contact when speaking to her had matured into someone confident and composed. When he looked at her now, his gaze was unwavering.
Hearing her words, Caleb smiled.
“You’ve changed a lot too. But you know what, Aria? Some things never change.”
His meaning was both subtle and direct, making Aria uncomfortable.
She turned away, pretending not to understand his implication.
If she were still the person she was eight years ago, she might have courageously taken a step forward.
Burtunately, she was now thirty–two. The bitter lessons she’d endured had extinguished her passion.
e no longer believed in love.
She had no strength to respond to someone else’s love, much less to love another person again.
The first half of her life had been turbulent enough. For her remaining years, she only wanted peace and stability.
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