Chapter 2: The Little Bookstore

It had just cleared when Aria Blackwood leaned her face against the window of the sleek black town car, watching rivulets follow down the surface like tiny shooting stars. The city sped by beyond it in a gray and metal kaleidoscope, but none of that was what she wanted.

"Are we there yet, Leo?" she asked brightly, tilting her head to glimpse the driver through the open partition.

Leo glanced at her in the rearview mirror, a small smile flickering on his lips. He'd driven her hundreds of places—ballet class, art class, high-end prep school parties—but none made her eyes sparkle like this one.

"Almost, Miss Blackwood. Two blocks."

Aria hugged her tote bag against her chest, her secret. Stuffed inside was her allowance in savings, the note she'd written on a Post-it cat figure, and her picture of favorite bookstore lady.

Because when Aria showed Lena pictures, Lena smiled.

The automobile took a turn down a thinner street between foreboding office buildings and hip cafés. There, as if hidden treasure, was a two-story red-brick structure painted a gentle, muted sage green. Above the door hung a wooden sign that read **Chapter & Soul**, the lettering hand-painted in gold leaf, corners slightly worn away.

It looked nothing like the world her father ruled—cold steel and towering glass. It looked like something out of a fairytale. And to Aria, it was.

The car stopped. Leo came around and opened the door, his umbrella popping open above Aria’s head.

“Call me when you’re ready,” he said as she skipped toward the entrance. “Don’t go anywhere else.”

“I won’t,” she promised. “I just wanna stay with Miss Lena.”

The doorbell near the door rang as she entered, and the city vanished.

Warmth enveloped her instantly—not just from the warm light and the scent of cinnamon tea and old paper, but from the air. Chapter & Soul was not just a bookstore. It was a refuge of serenity in a universe that never slept. A refuge where stories whispered from bookshelves and time came to a halt between pages.

Aria absorbed it, easing the tension in her shoulders.

From behind the worn mahogany counter, a woman looked up and smiled.

“Aria,” she said warmly, her voice like music filtered through honey. “You’re early today.”

“Hi, Miss Lena!”

Lena stood up and went behind the counter. She wore a baggy cream-colored sweater that slipped off one shoulder and blue jeans covered with a smudge of chalk-looking dust. Her chestnut hair was tied up in a loose knot with strands curling down over her temples, and she smelled, as ever, of vanilla and newly cracked books.

She stooped down to Aria's level and opened her arms. Aria flew into the hug.

"You smell like a story," Aria whispered against her sweater.

Lena smiled softly. "That's the best compliment I've ever gotten."

Getting up, Lena brushed a raindrop from Aria's cheek and asked, "Did you draw me today?

Aria grinned and dug into her bag, producing a crumpled piece of paper. It was a crayon drawing of Lena standing at the counter with stacks of books all around her. She was wearing a ginormous smile and her teeth were white, and she had wings.

"These are book fairy wings," Aria said. "Because you lead people to the right books."

Lena put a hand on her heart. "I'm going to cry. Can I tack it on the wall?"

"Yay! Beside last week's!"

As Lena crossed over to tack the picture up on her "Wall of Tiny Wonders" in the corner of the room, the front door creaked open once again.

The bell rang and a gust stirs the air.

A man stepped in. His coat was wet at the shoulders. Broad build. Piercing eyes. Stranger to all the others.

But not to Lena.

"Mr. Crane," she greeted with a warm smile. "Back for more science fiction?"

The older man chuckled. "You always remember."

"I never forget a face," she said, already heading to the back shelves to find the book he'd asked for.

Aria wandered off towards the children's section, which was in a small nook under a staircase. Bean bags, little chairs, and maze-like shelves stacked with books, made it the perfect hiding place. She flipped open one with a dragon on the cover and settled in, humming contentedly to herself.

Lena returned, holding out the paperback to Mr. Crane and talking with him about his wife's surgery the other day. She listened—actually—sharing a gentle word, a suggestion for a recipe, and a gentle laugh. And when he left, she stood leaning against the window for a second, arms folded, watching the rain pool in little lakes outside.

She had no idea how beautiful she looked then.

Not pretty like the models glued to billboards or the women Julian Blackwood spent time with. No, Lena was pretty in another way—silent and radiant, like sunlight streaming through curtains at morning. The kind of pretty that made people linger without realizing why.

But she didn't know.

She just turned, straightened a stack of poetry books, and went on about her day.

She never thought to ask herself who Aria's father was. She knew he was wealthy—Aria arrived with a driver and had that polished, private school aura—but Lena didn't ask. She didn't intrude. That's why her bookstore was so precious. It was a sanctuary from the din, even for a child who had grown up in the shadow of an empire.

Back in her corner, Aria read the last of her book and strolled to the counter, arms laden with three more.

"These are the ones I'd like today," she told Lena, setting them down with a gentle thump. "Could you write on the first page like you did last time?"

Lena grinned and pulled out her fountain pen. "Anything you'd like."

She opened the top book and started to write:

*To Aria. May this story take you somewhere magical. Love, Miss Lena.*

She didn't know a storm was on its way.

A storm in the form of a man who'd not stepped foot in a place like that for over ten years. Who didn't believe in comfort, or warmth, or women with gentle eyes who were sweet like cinnamon and paper.

A man with a cold heart.

A man who was about to encounter a woman he had no idea he required.

And Lena?

She was about to encounter the one man who would turn her peaceful little world completely upside down.