Aria La Belle is charged with a DUI homicide and spent time both behind bars and doing community service. Meanwhile, Lucas was in and out of hospitals for regular checkups on his amnesia which showed no improvement other than his family and the Augustine Company. Everything except for Aria, even the awful way he bullied her back in high school was a forgotten memory. Within the last three years, Lucas’s father had passed away, and because of Lucas’s condition, Davis became the new CEO while Lucas became the head director.
The Songbird’s dreams shattered along with her reputation and career to the point her friendship with her bandmates faded away too. Now she was an advertising agent for a company owned by Roxanne’s friend, someone who enjoyed making life hard on Aria just as much as her rival did. And Lucas was unaware of it all because nobody told him anything about Aria. The day Lucas was diagnosed with amnesia, David told Mason to never tell him about the woman he met at the concert.
Being the head director, most of Lucas’s jobs were to promote the company’s success. And the longer Lucas works under Davis, the more and more his uncle seems to act differently around him. He was no longer that caring, kindhearted uncle with sweet words of encouragement. Now he was more direct and curt. His father’s twin brother makes it very clear what he wants though he never says it out loud. But Lucas has finally started to get the feeling that Davis has always desired the seat of CEO. It shouldn’t be surprising since he knew he’d never get the seat of a king but at the same time… It made Lucas uncomfortable and Mason felt the same. Not to mention that Lucas’s share in money was still higher than Davis's, which only makes him more wary. But surely his uncle wouldn’t try to steal everything of worth, right…?
Lucas was uncertain. One thing he did know as an obvious fact is that his uncle has always desired the position of CEO. And now that he’s got it, his true colors are showing. The cruel reality is that his uncle never loved him, it was fake the whole time. But he and Mason keep their suspicions to themselves. What good would it do if they voiced their opinions? Other directors on the board seemed particularly close to Davis and it would be no surprise if they would always take his side. If only it wasn’t for the damned amnesia, maybe his lost memories would give him an edge on what’s going on beneath the cold water’s surface.
Trying his best to ignore the Augustine Company’s inner conflicts, Lucas does his best to focus on his work. Lucas went off to the company of one of Roxanne’s friends. But the red-haired singer was also a forgotten memory, even the name didn’t ring a bell.
Lucas walks into the front office of the smaller company to meet with the agent he had talked to on the phone an hour ago. The glass door chimes to announce that someone has just walked in. “Hello?” He calls out since there is nobody in the lobby. It was like a ghost town compared to the Augustine Company which could easily be defined as a beehive with a bunch of working bees and little honey in return.
“Be right there!” Calls a feminine voice that finally introduces herself as she hurries into the lobby. As soon as she came face to face with the man she was supposed to meet with, her jaw dropped with the stack of files she had in her hands. The woman was Aria and she was shocked, she hadn’t even recognized his voice on the phone. Lucas gave a confused tilt of his head, her apparent surprise left him muddled.
“O- oh… um,” Aria clears her throat while quickly picking up all of her files. “Long time no see…” She quietly and hesitantly says her words without looking him in the eyes. Once again she was wearing her glasses and her long black hair up in a bun. It felt like they were back in high school except her hands were full of papers and files instead of books. Aria instinctively prepared for a brutal insult but when she didn’t get one, she looked back up at him expectedly only to see how perplexed he looked.
“Do I know you?” He finally asks. Aria becomes more surprised by his chosen words but then feels a rarely-felt burning fire within her. He dared to leave her hanging and not speak to her for three years then pretend like he doesn’t know her when they meet by pure chance?
Aria ignores his question. It felt too similar to how he used to bully her in high school and she’d instead not turn the memory into trauma by dwelling on it for too long. “What can I help you with?”
“I’m Lucas Augustine, head director from the Augustine Company. I was hoping to work with someone more skilled with advertisements since I’m the one with the connections. It’d be great to work with you, Ms.…” Lucas peers at her nametag. “Aria? That’s a beautiful name.” Lucas then proceeds to look the pretty woman up and down and she could spot a bit of a blush on his cheeks as if he was thinking the same thing about her body. He then looks back into her eyes again with a perplexed lift of his brow. “Are you sure we haven’t met before? You look so familiar… do you put yourself in your advertisements?”
Aria’s gray eyes widen as she watches him. Again, she can tell when someone is being genuine. And this truly baffled her. Could it be that he doesn’t remember her?
“Lucas… we went to high school together, don’t you remember?” Aria asks hesitantly since it wasn’t her favorite memory.
Lucas just silently stares at her, the words still not ringing a bell. And Aria’s surprise was starting to turn into worry.
“Lucas, is something wrong? Do you not remember any of this?” Aria finally asks while carefully inspecting him by looking him up and down.
Lucas frowns and rubs the back of his neck while looking away. “Three years ago, I got into a pretty bad car crash. It almost killed me. I don’t remember anything but they think a deer just jumped out in front of me and I lost control of my car. They told me I have amnesia. Thankfully I can remember some things like my family and my company but other memories are still foggy or vague.” He then looks back to Aria. “I take it I knew you in the past then, huh, Aria?...” Lucas’s voice trails off as a brief, faint vision crosses his mind. A memory that flickered like sunlight between tree leaves. He sees her on a stage, singing. Aria felt unnerved when he suddenly stopped moving and just stared at her until finally spoke three words, a name. “Aria… La Belle? Songbird…”
Aria’s eyes widen again when he says her full name and even her stage name, this makes her smile brightly. “You do remember me!”
“I think? It was just a glimpse but- AGH!” Lucas almost buckles over as he grabs his head, a searing headache pulses through his skull without warning.
“LUCAS!” Aria yells and quickly grabs his arm to stabilize him when he haunched before he could collapse. “Are you ok?!”
“I- I think so…” Lucas winces when he takes a single blink and he runs his hand through his blonde hair as the pulsing slowly subsides. Once he steadies his stance, he gives Aria a small smile. “I take it we got history then, huh?”
Aria was silent for a moment before returning the smile. “Something like that…”
Lucas’s smile then unexpectedly turns affectionate. “I look forward to working with you, Aria.”
“Likewise.” Aria’s voice was sweet but as soon as Lucas looked away, Aria’s kind smile turned sad. Lucas was only treating her like this because he didn’t remember how deep their history ran. Will he back away from her once he remembers everything? Or will he keep treating her this way?
After their day working together on a project for the Augustine Company, Lucas schedules an early appointment with the doctor he sees for his amnesia. He was looking forward to telling him that his memories were finally returning when he met a woman from his past. Though his doctor expresses bliss when Lucas tells him about his progress, the doctor reports to his boss, Davis, as soon as he can. And this news dramatically upsets him. The conniving nature was starting to come to the surface once again. If Lucas recovers all of his memories, then he will be able to steal the seat of the CEO out from beneath him. He knew he had to act fast, and all it took was a phone call.
That day, Mason came into the CEO’s office when he received that certain phone call from Davis. He was ordered to come in alone without telling anyone, and little did he know that he was about to become a tool.
“Mr. Augustine?” Mason asks the name that he’s been saying for years now. Even after David passed away, he still goes on to say that name. If it wasn’t for Lucas’s amnesia, he’d still be saying that name for the next decade if his best friend had become the CEO instead. Unbeknownst to him was that this was the very reason why he was called into the CEO’s office. The look in Davis’s eyes as he leaned over his desk unnerved him.
“Mr. Miller. I have a task for you. And if you refuse… it’ll be the last refusal you’ll ever make.”
“So, what do you think?” Lucas asks his best friend. It was the next day and they were both at the Augustine Company within Mason’s office. Lucas was hanging out here with him even though they were still within working hours, sitting on his desk. Even with the amnesia he’s had the past three years, the man has never changed.“Think? Well… I think it’s great that you’re getting your memories back. Even a tiny bit counts…” Mason’s words trail off and he sweats as he remembers his boss’s threat from yesterday. Davis ordered him to not mention Aria and to keep her name out of his head. The distress could make him sick. Lucas is his best friend, how could he lie to him? They’ve been friends for years. When Mason had a nasty divorce, Lucas let him stay at his house for as long as he liked and even gave him rides. Hell, he still does. And now he’s being forced to lie to his face. But what choice does he have? He doesn’t know what Davis is careful of.Mason clears his throat to make sure his
“So if we do this, then…” Aria explains to Lucas while pointing from paper to paper within the files she had collected to help them with his project. The pretty woman was so caught up in explaining their plan and layout that she didn’t even stop to ask Lucas for any opinions of his own. But when she finally did look at him, she spotted him staring at her from the other side of the table that they sat on. Aria becomes flustered with a blush as she raises her voice. “Mr. Augustine!” Lucas jumps when his surname is yelled at. By his reaction and sudden change in expression, it was obvious that Aria’s words had gone in one of his ears and flew right out the other without registering anything in his brain. Aria heaves a tired sigh and crosses her arms while shaking her head. “Honestly, sir, if you want my help then you need to take this seriously!” The former heir gives a sheepish grin since he was just caught gazing at her in a trance from her beauty once again. “Sorry. And, again, call
Aria’s frozen body is followed by a pounding heart as Lucas’s face leans closer to hers. She instinctively closed her eyes just to hide her panic mostly. As she begins to feel his warm breath against her skin, a knock at her office’s door makes the lovebirds jump and spin around right as Aria’s boss walks in.“Are you two- oh…” Her eyes were wide with awkward surprise when she saw what she had just walked in on and then she pretended to fix her shirt and act professional, even lifting her chin a bit as she spoke. “Ms. La Bella. Don’t forget you have an appointment with someone else as well. You’ll have to wrap up what you’re doing with Mr. Augustine soon.” The woman says before walking out of the room, her high-heeled shoes leaving behind loud clacks as they hear her walk down the hall.The black-haired woman lets out a tired sigh. “Oh, gosh, I almost forgot!” She then looked at the man apologetically. “Sorry, Lucas. We’ll pick it back up again tomorrow.”The look in Lucas’s eyes sho
“Thanks for coming with me, Mason. I knew I could rely on you.” Lucas says to his best friend as they wait in the doctor’s office.“Of course. Whatever you need, I’ll always be right here for you.” Mason smiles back at him, doing his best to make sure it doesn’t look like it’s being forced. The man still felt awful for lying to Lucas about being a supportive friend.The situation Mason was in felt like torture, having to lie to the one man who had had his back through the best and worst of times. But he was still terrified over what Mr. Augustine would do to him if he refused to follow his orders. All he had to do was report to his boss about Lucas’s activities, lie to his friend about what his uncle was up to, and attempt to keep him away from Aria. Everything was going as Davis wanted but what he didn’t know was that he was failing to keep Lucas away from Aria. As a result, his friend has regained more memories. What will happen to Mason if Davis finds out about this?The two men lo
The look in Mason’s eyes couldn’t be hidden from Lucas. He could tell that his friend was very distressed and he would even say afraid. But afraid of what? His uncle? The two friends had their suspicions about Davis’s actions and behavior since his twin brother, Lucas’s father, died. But just because his personality changes doesn’t mean that his uncle has turned into a villain. Right?Lucas knew that their meeting had nothing to do with him so it was best if he didn’t interfere. The former heir decides to get back to work on his job but there was still another troubling question that crossed his mind. Why would his doctor on amnesia relay a message from Davis to Mason?The Augustine Company had an infirmary built within the building a long time ago, David cared about his employees and wanted to make sure that if any harm came to them, or even a mild headache, there would be a place there for them to feel better. This is where Lucas has been seeing his doctor for amnesia. At the same t
Papers are dumped on top of Aria’s head, making the woman flinch as all of her hard work gets scattered on the floor and it even messes up her black hair that she had struggled to put into a clean bun. “Unbelievable.” Her boss then tosses her files to the side. The anger in her eyes revealed the fuel behind her cruel fire: jealousy. “Un-fucking-believeable! Why the hell would Augustine be interested in someone like you? A failed singer. Roxanne told me all about how pathetic you are with your little singing career that got flushed down the drain because you were an alcoholic! Oh yeah, I bet he doesn’t even know that you’re a felon!”The rumors that Roxanne had spread about Aria weren’t true. Aria hated alcohol but she’d only make an exception when it was with her friends. But even then, she still doesn’t drink very much. Aria remained silent as her boss released her ire upon her. Her hands were balled up in tight fists where they rested on her lap. Even her whole body was completely
Lucas couldn’t help but watch Aria as she worked. She was speaking to him and yet, once again, her words fell on deaf ears. It’s not like he did it on purpose however, his head was merely full of over things. There was one thing that echoed in his mind the loudest, something that was bothering him the most - Aria wasn’t looking at him the same way she had always done before.Why is that?“Mr. Augustine.” Her pleasant voice speaking his last name caught his attention. But when he looked at her, her gray eyes didn’t hold that tender warmth that they usually did ever since he met her after getting amnesia. “What are your thoughts on the matter?”Lucas bit the inside of his cheek when he realized she was only questioning him just to see if he was paying attention. She didn’t look like she was in the mood to have extra patience for the man who spaced out so often. He finally decides to come out and speak his mind. “Ms. La Belle, I need to ask you something.” Aria put her hands together and
“Aria? What’s wrong?” Lucas questions her when he sees the look on her face change. By the time he looked towards what she was staring at, the shadow was gone but a new voice was heard amongst the familiar voice of Aria’s boss.“Roxanne!” Her boss echoes in surprise. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you here til later!” “I just thought I’d come to pay my favorite friend a little visit.” Says a voice that Aria hasn’t heard in years that immediately makes her heart sink and feel sick to her stomach. All this time, Aria has been trying to ignore the woman’s name which seems to keep popping up more and more as her popularity grows and she becomes more famous. It was hard to believe that Roxanne was once a petty woman jealous of her talent in singing. Now she couldn’t even call her competition. Lucas sees Aria’s expression dampen even further. He had a feeling it had to do with the woman’s voice that had just appeared, this Roxanne person that Aria’s boss ju