Chapter One: The Elevator Ride to My Past
The elevator doors slid open like the jaws of fate, cold and silver and waiting.
Ava Bennett stepped in, her heels silent on the polished floor, her heart anything but.
Twenty-two floors to the top.
She inhaled slowly, exhaled even slower, and pressed the button.
It had been five years since she last stepped into Wolfe Enterprises. Five years since she walked away from everything—her career, her pride, and him. Damon Wolfe. The man who once looked at her like she was his future… and threw her away like she was just another name on a file.
She was older now. Smarter. Sharper. She wore her pain like tailored armor.
But her pulse still betrayed her as the elevator began its climb.
Ding. Floor 7.
She remembered laughing with him in the break room, eating Chinese takeout between meetings.
Ding. Floor 14.
She remembered the first time he kissed her—urgent, breathless, like he couldn't believe she was real.
Ding. Floor 19.
And she remembered the night it ended. Rain. Silence. His voice, colder than the storm outside, telling her she had betrayed him.
She hadn't.
But he hadn't believed her.
And that was worse.
Ding. Floor 22.
The doors opened, revealing the top floor like a memory come to life—glass walls, the skyline stretching endlessly behind them, and a receptionist who looked her over with a forced smile.
"You must be Ms. Bennett," she said. "Mr. Wolfe is expecting you."
Of course he was.
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The hallway stretched forever.
Every step Ava took was measured, precise, rehearsed in front of a mirror for the past week. But when she reached his office door—his door—her fingers trembled as they reached for the handle.
She didn't knock.
She walked in.
And there he was.
Damon Wolfe stood behind his desk, tall and composed, in a black tailored suit that fit like sin and success had made a pact. His dark hair was slightly longer than she remembered, his jaw sharper, his presence... just as devastating.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then his eyes—those ice-gray eyes—lifted to meet hers.
The air between them shifted.
Like static before a storm.
"Ava," he said, her name like a sentence he hadn't finished five years ago.
"Mr. Wolfe," she replied, her voice a little too steady, a little too soft.
His lips twitched, like he tasted something bitter. "Still formal, I see."
"Still arrogant," she shot back before she could stop herself.
He walked around the desk slowly, like a predator assessing its prey—or maybe a man walking toward a ghost.
"I'm surprised you accepted the offer," he said.
"I didn't know you were the one behind it."
"I wasn't."
That stopped her.
He studied her carefully. "I didn't see your résumé until HR forwarded your onboarding documents. I had no idea until it was already official."
Ava's breath caught. "And yet… here I am."
"Yes." His voice dropped. "Here you are."
Silence again.
God, the weight of it. Heavier than the betrayal. Heavier than the years apart.
He stepped closer. "Why did you come back?"
Ava lifted her chin. "Because I'm good at what I do. And I don't run from my past."
"Don't you?" His eyes flickered. "Because the last time I saw you, you were walking away."
"You gave me no choice."
His jaw tightened. "We both made mistakes."
"You believed a lie."
"You didn't fight hard enough to tell the truth."
The words hung between them, raw and bleeding.
And then, suddenly, too quickly, he was inches away.
"I never stopped wondering," he said quietly. "If I made the biggest mistake of my life."
She didn't move. Didn't breathe.
"And now you're here again, like a second chance I never earned."
Ava's heart cracked open, one line at a time.
"I'm not here to fix the past, Damon," she said.
"Then why are you here?"
She looked at him, really looked. "Because part of me still believes we never finished our story."
And just like that, his hand brushed her cheek—barely there, like he was afraid she'd vanish.
"I never stopped missing you."
She closed her eyes.
"Don't say that," she whispered.
"Why?"
"Because if you mean it… I don't know if I can stay strong."
The silence answered for him.
And then his hand dropped.
And so did the shield around her heart.
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