Chapter 2: Darker Shades

The air inside the car was heavy, thick with the weight of words unspoken. The driver stole another glance through the rearview mirror, but the man in the backseat remained silent, his gaze fixed on nothing, lost in a world only he could see.

Outside, the city blurred past, but inside, time seemed to stand still. His hands clenched into fists on his lap, as if grasping for something—anything—to hold onto. But there was nothing. Only the hollow ache where his soul used to be.

Behind them, the woman crumbled. Her body trembled as her heart hammering against her ribs like it wanted to escape from before then, as though she was afraid of something only she understood

Only then did he realize her heartbeat was familiar, and the smell coming off her was what he caught a whiff of in the restaurant.

His eyes were fixed on her face as she sat there, seemingly composed.

Harley was in no way composed, but this act she had started, she was going to finish it to the end. She had been looking back once in a while to make sure they had completely left her enemies behind. Only then did she pay attention to the man beside her.

She looked into his slightly dark eyes and held her smile.

“Don’t look at me that way. I was just doing it to get rid of some people. Thank you so much for helping me. You can drop me right there at the junction.” She said, if his eyes were dark before, they were even darker now. But she had no intention of staying back.

‘I’m not waiting to see what happens.’ She thought she was really scared inside. And she was done with this game. She was done with his night.

Aiden ordered his driver to stop her at the junction, but he did not stop staring right at her. It was almost as though if she moved wrong for one moment, he would swallow her whole.

The car rolled to a stop at the junction, and Harley got off. The moment to have feet touched the concrete floor she smiled,

“Thank you, handsome,” she said, walking away in brisk steps, almost as though she was afraid, if she waited one moment, he would walk out of that car and come for her.

She had never felt such danger so close before, a heart was beating so loud that she thought she might die.

But what both of them did not know was that when the kiss had taken place, and Harley had slipped into his car to leave, an older woman had taken a picture by the side of the restaurant, if one laid eyes on her face this moment, they would have thought she was looking at prey as her lips were curled up so far up that they almost reached her brows.

She tilted her head from side to side in a childish manner, almost as though she had seen something fun. She hurriedly called for a driver to come pick her up and waited impatiently till he arrived.

She hurried into the car and instructed him to go home immediately, while typing through her phone, sending out instructions for family members to come around and meet all but one. The reason for this gossip, Aiden himself.

When she arrived at the house, everyone available had gathered. Madame Patrick had long forgotten her quarrel with her husband as she hurried home to share this news.

If she did not call over all those living at home as though it was important, they would not come. She quickly sat down and cleared her throat, recalling the attention of all who sat around silence hugged the room.

“Aiden has a girlfriend,” she said. And the tension in the room dropped just as quickly as it had risen. They had thought something had happened.

This old woman would give out information many times that was incorrect. When they were younger, they used to fall for it, but now it is not as easy.

“I saw Aiden kissing his girlfriend today at a restaurant” she said, and tension dropped even further.

Her words did not give them any more confidence in her. It was not the first time she saw someone who looked like Aiden holding someone only to find that Aiden had not been in the country for days.

“I have evidence,” she said. And they all raised their brows.

Did she know how to take evidence? Has the sun risen from the west? Still, Aiden was her son, and she had been hoping he would marry soon, so she thought anyone that looked like him walking around with a girlfriend might be him.

“I took pictures,” she said, and attention peaked right back to where it was when she walked into their room. Is it possible it is him?

“I have sent it to the group chat,” she said, and everybody immediately scrambled to their phones.

Harley had returned to her small apartment, unknown to her that she had already become someone’s girlfriend. She took off her shoes and collapsed onto the floor, taking in deep breaths. She was both scared and proud of herself. She most definitely destroyed them today, after all the years of bullying, she finally spoke. She almost felt like crying. She crawled up from the floor and coiled up into a ball. Taking out her phone from her bag, she called her mother,

“Mom, I did it today.” She said,

“Harley, you sound excited dear, what did you do, darling?” Her mother’s voice sounded from the other side of the phone.

“Julie used one of our friends to invite me out today. They wanted to embarrass me Mother”

“And what did you do?” Her mother asked,

“Trust me mom, I gave them a piece of my mind, as much as they all deserved” She said, proudly,

Her mom laughed, “Of course daring, I know my daughter, I knew you could do it after I gave you that mouth that is so sharp it could drill a hole through the world. It is only right that it is finally time for you to whip some people straight. Mother is very proud of you,” she said with a smile.

The rest of the call had been a blur, with Harley trying so hard not to remember just how much her mom was suffering. When the woman laughed, it seemed forced and laced with so much pain, but Harley tried to remain strong so her mom would notice her sadness and become sad too.

"Take care of yourself mom." Harley had whispered to her mom when she noticed that her mom was becoming sleepy again. When she got no reply from her mom, Harley knew she had fallen asleep and so she needed the call.

Harley smiled sadly at how her mom seemed to support her every single time, despite facing so many hardships. A single tear ran down her eyes, and then, she broke down in little sobs as pictures of their past and struggles chased themselves down her memory lane.

She did not remember how she had gotten from the floor to her room that night, but by the time she woke up, it was morning.

She hardly dressed and cleaned up so that she could get to work early. They were receiving their new CEO today.

She walked into that office feeling refreshed, even though her arch enemy and rival, professionally, Dora, had given her a ones over, but she raised a brow at her and joined her team as they joined the managers to greet the new CEO.

As they waited tension built, a lot of gossip flew around about the new CEO Aiden Patrick .

He will said to be incredibly handsome, rich and astute, whatever that meant, to summarize, fell out of a romance novel.

As she heard them describe him, she slightly recalled the handsome man she had kissed last night, but the shame forced her to quickly shake it off.

She was determined to leave that embarrassing memory behind her, but at that moment, the elevator sounded and the doors rolled open.

As if to pay her back for her bravery, or maybe audacity last night, as if to slap her for daring to be brave words with her bullies for the first time in her life, as if to spit on her for straightening her back from yesterday into today, the very handsome CEO walked out of the elevator too familiar for her heart.

The moment she set eyes on him, her world came crashing down. She had kissed him last night. Harley was in no way composed, but this act she had started, she was going to finish it to the end. She had been looking back once in a while to make sure they had completely left her enemies behind.