I want Her Still

Unbelievable Discovery

Damien had just gotten home from work, exhausted and craving nothing more than his bed. As he walked past the living room, he caught sight of Seraphina sitting in a corner, deep in conversation with Vivian. She noticed him the second he entered, but acted as if she was too wrapped up in whatever they were talking about to care.

Well Damien didn't care either.

He didn't even spare them a second glance. He walked straight to his bedroom, the tension in his shoulders barely contained.

The moment he shut the door behind him maybe a little harder than he meant to, something flickered in his memory.

Actually, he had woken up that morning with a pounding headache, the kind that made even the light feel too loud, he'd wondered why and then chalked it up to drinking too much the night before. It wasn't unusual after a rough day. Still, he'd shoved it aside, since duty calls and he had to be present for a business meeting, so he forced himself into the shower, and headed off to work like nothing was wrong.

But now, after seeing Seraphina, his head snapped and throbbed again, and a sudden wave of something sharp and strange came rushing in.

He suddenly remembered seraphina entering into his room, even seating on his bed, also a conversation.

A moment.

Right there, in this very bedroom, with Seraphina?

He winced and shut his eyes tight, trying to piece it together. And that's when it hit him. Not just the blurry memories of the night before, but something deeper, something more like a long movie. A name. A face.

Ana.

He suddenly remembered events that happened when he was younger, the girl from next door staying at their old house back in Chicago. Ana used to live in the house just beside his, they went to the same school, shared the same neighborhood air. And he remembered her name vividly, Ana Clarkson.

She was beautiful. Not in an obvious way, but in that striking, untouchable way that made people stare a little too longer. She was brilliant too, top of her class, the kind of girl teachers praised and students envied. All the boys liked her at some point, and that affection quickly turned bitter when she didn't give them the time of day.

Soon they started calling her a snob. Said she thought she was better than everyone else.

But Damien knew the truth. She didn't think she was better, she was just trying to protect herself in a world that didn't know how to handle girls like her_wise girl_Damien agreed with her reasoning back then, actually Damien came from the most powerful family in the area.

The Lopez name made people kneel. He was treated like royalty, even like a god sometimes and it messed with his head more than he realized.

One time, his parents had hired one of the best tutors in town to help him prepare for college, and Clara Clarkson, Ana's mother, happened to run into Damien's mother; Eleanor Lopez, had strike conversation with Clara discussing about the children's academics, then amidst conversation, Clara mentioned how far Ana had to walk for her own lessons. So they eventually agreed it made sense for Ana to come over to the Lopez house and share the tutor. After all, they were close neighbors.

When Damien found out, he could barely contain his excitement, even though he didn't show it, of course, but deep down, something about Ana had always pulled at him. Maybe it was her quiet strength. Maybe it was how she didn't seem to care about anybody, him inclusive.

Maybe it was something about her outer worldly beauty, or perhaps it was the air of elegance that follows her around.

He remembered the day he finally worked up the courage to ask her out. He thought she'd say yes immediately, after all, he was different, he was Damien Lopez, Chicago Prince charming.

The perfect guy that every girl wanted a piece of.

But Ana... she said no. And it crushed him.

Turned out, rejection hit harder when your ego was the size of a mansion. She had turned him down in front of his colleagues making his blood boil. From that day on, something shifted. He started to avoid her. Got cold. Distant. He couldn't explain it, but being around her suddenly made him feel small and he hated it.

Then came the rumors. The whispers. A few boys decided to "teach her a lesson" for rejecting them. Damien heard the plan. He could've stopped it. He could've said something.

But he didn't.

He chose to mind his own business.

He remembered Seraphina, too, how she had started calling Ana "the clerk's daughter," mocking her father for being a receptionist. It was cruel, but Seraphina knew how to twist the knife. In a place like that, where every family's worth was weighed in wealth, status meant everything.

And Ana's family, though hardworking and respectable, didn't measure up to the Lopez or so people said.

What hurt the most now was that Damien remembered seeing Ana flinch every time someone called her that, but he'd just looked away.

Then came the day of the school's swimming pool party, a day that would etch itself into Damien's memory forever.

Seraphina had pretended to be friendly with Ana, playing the role of a concerned classmate.

She'd convinced Ana to wear a revealing swimsuit and then cover it up with a skirt, promising her it was just a fun day and everyone wouldn't even notice anything since she was wearing a skirt. But the moment Ana stepped out in front of the crowd, Seraphina betrayed her, yanking off the skirt and exposing Ana in front of everyone.

Damien couldn't believe his eyes.

Ana stood there, frozen in shock, her face flushed with horror. She was beautiful, undeniably so. Even back then, her figure was stunning, her curves graceful and natural. But what caught Damien's eye wasn't just her beauty, it was a small teardrop-shaped birthmark high on her thigh.

He remembered how some of the other girls had cruelly snickered, whispering that she must've had a hidden tattoo, calling her names, branding her things she wasn't. They didn't care about truth they just wanted someone to tear down. And that someone was Ana.

Damien knew, in a single glance, that it wasn't a tattoo. It was something natural, something uniquely hers.

He remembered how the boys whistled, laughed, made remarks, immature and heartless. But Damien wasn't listening to them. He couldn't stop watching Ana, her trembling hands desperately trying to cover herself, her eyes wide with panic, like a deer caught in headlights. She looked like she might pass out right there. Especially when they started throwing things at her, it was unfair to her and she looked too pitiful in that situation.

And even though Damien was still holding a grudge, still bitter about the day Ana had turned him down, embarrassing him in front of everyone, yet, in that moment... his heart broke for her.

He couldn't take any pleasure in what was happening.

So he started moving, ready to help, but before he could reach her, Ana spun around and slapped him.

She slapped him hard on the face.

Right there. In front of everyone.

The slap stung, not just physically but deep in his pride and heart. Then she ran off, her head down, tears already spilling from her eyes.

And Damien just stood there, stunned. And very much embarrassed. Damien felt humiliated at the pool party, so much so that he swore to himself he'd make Ana pay the next time he saw her. His pride was wounded, his ego bruised, and in that childish rage, he told himself he'd never forgive her.

But weeks passed, and Ana didn't show up for her usual lessons at his house. Her absence was loud, Damien noticed it more than he admitted. Then one afternoon, she finally came by. He learned later that her mother, Clara, had sent her on an errand to deliver a message to his parents.

What happened next was something he never would have envisaged.

As Ana stepped into the kitchen to deliver the message, she unexpectedly caught sight of their nanny, someone the family trusted, adding something strange to Damien's food. And Ana didn't hesitate. She spoke up, called it out right away. The nanny denied everything, of course, claiming Ana must've misunderstood. She had even called it seasoning.

But Ana wouldn't back down.

She demanded that the nanny taste the food herself. The woman refused. Without a second thought, Ana snatched the bowl and placed it before Damien's favorite pet, his purebred German shepherd. But the moment the dog ate the food, it collapsed.

Dying instantly.

Chaos erupted. People ran in from all corners of the house. The dog lay lifeless. And in the midst of the panic, the nanny broke down, sobbing, confessing everything. The police were called. She was arrested on the spot.

That was the day Damien first heard the name "Dexter" spoken with real fear.

Dexter, his father's former employee, now turned their worse nightmare.

A man who had once worked in the shadows of the Lopez family but had grown twisted with obsession. He believed the empire belonged to him, and he would stop at nothing to take it.

There had been whispers before, rumors of plots and attempted sabotage, but this? Poisoning? It was the first time Damien saw the danger up close.

But that's a story for another day.

What stuck with Damien most wasn't the betrayal from the nanny, it was the confrontation that followed.

Ana came back to the house a few days later, perhaps hoping things had settled. But the moment Damien saw her, still grieving the loss of his beloved dog, something snapped in him.

He rushed to her in anger, accusing her of killing his dog. Of making things worse. Of being reckless.

And then he said the words that cut through the air like knives;

"Don't ever come back to this house again."

That was the last time he ever saw her.

Deep down, he hadn't meant a single word of it. He was hurting, angry, confused, and instead of thanking her for saving his life, he punished her for it.

She had done the right thing. She'd saved him, but all he could see was the pain of losing his dog. And he lashed out at the one person who had been brave enough to speak up.

Damien also correctly discovered now that Seraphina had lied.

She'd taken credit for something she never did, claiming she was the one who first noticed the nanny tampering with Damien's food, that she was the one who alerted Ana. And Ana then voiced out, claiming the credit for herself. But now, the fog was gone. The truth was clear.

It had always been Ana.

And more than that, Damien remembered the accident, the one that nearly claimed his life. And he remembered something else, something he hadn't been able to recall for years.

It was Ana who saved him.

He had been standing on the side of the road, just a few blocks from home, waiting for the school bus. Ana had come out around the same time, dressed in her school uniform. They stood side by side, both lost in their own thought.

Then, out of nowhere, a truck swerved out of control, barreling straight toward him.

That was the second attempt on Damian's life.

And Ana was there again to save him, she infact reacted instantly. She didn't scream. She didn't hesitate. She shoved him with all her strength, pushing him out of the path of the speeding vehicle.

She saved his life.

Except that the force of the fall was brutal. Damien's head struck a metal post, and blood gushed from the wound. Within seconds, he lost consciousness. And when Ana saw him in that condition she screamed, a scream so loud it rang in his memory even now.

That moment left him with partial amnesia. And somehow, it wiped Ana from his life completely. He never thought of her again. Never remembered the girl who'd saved him.

Not until today.

"What... Ana?"

Damien slid down to the floor, back against the door, still dressed in his office suit. His face was pale. His expression stunned, like someone who had just seen a ghost, or worse, recognized one he had forgotten.

He sat there for a moment, breath uneven, heart pounding, as the pieces of his memory kept falling into place like a cruel puzzle.

He remembered that the Tyler Ross, the girl with the oversized glasses with that impossibly cute smile that had taken his breath away. The girl who kissed him so deeply he felt like the world had stopped spinning. The one he almost made love to... the one who made him feel alive again. The girl he fell in love with at Singapore was infact the same girl from way back, Ana Clarkson.

The same brilliant, strong-willed girl from his past. The one who always seemed out of reach. The one who had snubbed him back in college. The girl with the tear-shaped birthmark and the fire in her eyes.

He had fallen for her once.

And without even knowing it... he had fallen for her all over again.

Then, with trembling fingers, he reached for his phone and dialed Eric.

When Eric picked up, Damien's voice was barely above a whisper. "Eric.. you can go find her now."

"Who? Tyler Ross?" Eric asked over the phone confused.

"No," Damien murmured, eyes distant.

"Ana. Ana Clarkson. That's her real name."

And with that, he let the phone slip from his hand, dropping to the floor. He shut his eyes, his strength gone.

He couldn't believe it.

He had fallen for the same girl twice, once as a boy, and now again as a man.

But both times, she never wanted him.