ARIA'S POV
The car pulled up to the familiar apartment building in Chinatown, and Aria felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement flutter in her stomach. Sunday dinner with her mother. The first time Damien would be meeting Mei Chen properly, not as the grateful woman whose life he'd saved, but as Aria's mother....the woman whose approval mattered almost as much as Richard Blackwood's.
She glanced at the backseat and couldn't help but laugh. Bags and boxes filled every available space....expensive designer handbags, premium supplements, gourmet food items, wines that probably cost more than her mother's monthly rent.
"You know you don't have to come with all these things," Aria said, smiling at Damien. "She only wants to properly meet you. And here you are buying out the entire mall."
Damien pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it softly. "I am meeting your mother for the first time, Aria. Of course I have to show her that I am capable of taking care of you."
