Taming My Sugar Mommy-Chapter 19: The Ghost Of David Harrison

The chandeliers bathed the ballroom in golden light, their crystals scattering reflections across the polished marble floor. Isabella stood near the grand staircase, composed as ever, her silk gown draping flawlessly. Around her, London's elite danced between conversations and champagne flutes. Then, she saw him.

David Harrison moved through the crowd with the same effortless control he'd always had. Prison hadn't broken him—it had sharpened him. His tuxedo still carried the weight of power, and his silver-streaked hair only added to his presence. He was meant to be forgotten, but there he was.

Their eyes met across the sea of bodies, and Isabella felt her chest constrict. For one treacherous moment, she was twenty-three again, standing in his penthouse with stars in her eyes and dreams in her heart. The memory hit her like a physical blow, and she had to fight the urge to step back.

Her fingers tightened around her champagne glass. Across the room, Christina caught her eye, already reading the unspoken command.

"Christina," Isabella murmured, keeping her voice steady. "Take Liam home."

Christina hesitated, glanced at David, then back to her. A silent understanding passed before she moved swiftly toward Liam.

Only when they were gone did Isabella allow herself to breathe, the knot in her stomach tightening as David approached. His cologne reached her first – an expensive blend of cedar and something darker that triggered a cascade of memories she'd spent years burying.

*TEN YEARS AGO*

David Harrison built empires.

Harrison International wasn't just a company—it was a force. Real estate, tech investments, international ventures. He turned forgotten districts into billion-pound enterprises, charmed ministers into deals, and had an uncanny ability to be exactly where power shifted.

When Isabella met him, she was young, ambitious, determined to carve out her own success. Ashworth Luxury Events was a dream in its infancy. David was the man who opened doors, gave her the connections she needed, and, somewhere along the way, became her world.

He was charming, intelligent, relentless. A man who never lost.

She believed she knew everything about him.

She didn't.

The cracks started small.

A last-minute trip to Dubai. A meeting with a politician behind closed doors, no press coverage. Cash flow that didn't match the numbers on paper.

Isabella wasn't naïve. She knew powerful men had secrets.

But then, there were the nights he came home late, his shirt smelling of cologne and something heavier—gunpowder, maybe. The men who whispered to him at events, their words carrying something just out of reach.

And then, one night, she found the file.

She hadn't meant to.

David left his laptop open while he showered. She walked by, catching a glimpse of a financial statement—except it wasn't for Harrison International. Offshore accounts. Shipments. Names she didn't recognize.

A chill ran through her.

'She shouldn't look.'

But she did.

Minutes later, she closed the laptop, her pulse thundering in her ears.

She'd known David was powerful. She just hadn't realized how deep that power ran.

For weeks, she said nothing.

She watched. Listened. Noticed the layers beneath the surface—legitimate businesses masking a darker operation. The real estate developments, the luxury hotels, the tech investments—they were all fronts. Hiding drug shipments, money laundering, deals with men whose names never made it into contracts.

The realization sickened her.

She had loved him. Built a life with him. And now, every dinner party, every gala, every whispered conversation in the halls of power felt like part of a game she hadn't even realized she was playing.

So she made a choice.

She walked away.

No confrontation—David was too careful, too calculating. He'd lie. Manipulate. Make her doubt her own mind.

So, she left. Moved out of his penthouse. Cut ties. Focused on her business. Prayed the world he'd pulled her into wouldn't pull her back.

She told herself she was free.

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Then, a year later, the headlines came.

DAVID HARRISON ARRESTED IN MAJOR DRUG OPERATION

POLICE RAID EXPOSES CRIMINAL NETWORK HIDING BEHIND HARRISON INTERNATIONAL

She had nothing to do with it.

The authorities had been building the case for years. Someone from his circle had flipped. A business partner, an enforcer, someone with enough knowledge to take him down. The police had been waiting for the right moment.

And just like that, David Harrison—the man who once controlled everything—was dragged into the light.

She told herself it was over.

He would rot in prison, and she'd never have to see him again.

But ghosts had a way of returning.

*PRESENT DAY*

"Beautiful event, Isabella," he said, his voice still carrying that smooth, cultured tone that had once made her weak at the knees. A knowing smirk played at the corners of his mouth as he raised his champagne glass. "Though I notice security's been... preoccupied."

Isabella felt rather than saw the eyes of the room's occupants sliding toward them, drawn by the magnetic pull of power recognizing power. She kept her expression neutral, though her pulse raced beneath her carefully applied makeup.

"I don't recall seeing your name on the guest list," she replied, her words carrying the chill of a December morning.

David's smile spread slowly, deliberately, like ink bleeding across expensive paper. "Let's just say I received an invitation from someone who remembers the value of loyalty." His dark eyes, the color of aged whiskey, held hers with an intensity that made her skin prickle.

'Someone had betrayed her,' she thought, her mind already cataloging possibilities even as she maintained her mask of indifference. The weight of his gaze felt like a physical touch, stirring memories of darker nights and whispered promises.

"Careful," she murmured, her voice steady despite the tremor in her soul. "Your release has conditions, doesn't it?"

"Oh, I've been a model citizen," David replied, his fingers adjusting a platinum cufflink with calculated precision. The gesture was so familiar it made Isabella's throat tighten. "Prison was... enlightening. Gave me time to reflect." His voice dropped lower, intimate enough to send a shiver down her spine. "On old friends. On what really matters."

The ballroom suddenly felt too warm, too close. Isabella could feel the heat radiating from his body, even with the careful distance she maintained between them. His presence seemed to fill more space than physically possible, like a gravitational force drawing everything toward him.

"Some things are better left behind," she said, watching as the light caught the angles of his face. Age had refined his features rather than weathered them, chiseling away any softness until only steel remained.

David's smirk faltered, replaced by something raw and hungry that made her pulse quicken. "Maybe. But we both know there was more to what we had, Isabella." He stepped closer, close enough that she could see the flecks of gold in his eyes. "You were always my anchor. And I never let go of that."

Her chest constricted painfully, memories flooding back like a broken dam. The nights in his penthouse, the whispered plans, the touch of his hands – all tainted now by the knowledge of what lay beneath. She watched his face, searching for traces of the man she'd once loved in this harder, sharper version before her.

"I made mistakes," he continued, his voice carrying an urgency that belied his controlled exterior. His hand twitched slightly, as if fighting the urge to reach for her. "But I never stopped thinking about you. About what we built together." A muscle in his jaw tightened. "And now, after all this time, I realize I never should've let you walk away."

Isabella felt the weight of his words like physical pressure against her skin. The room seemed to recede, leaving only them in this bubble of shared history and unspoken regrets. For a moment, she was drowning in the intensity of his gaze, in the familiar pull of what they'd once been.

David leaned in, his breath warm against her ear. "I know you've built something of your own. But that doesn't change what we had. What we could still have."

The silence stretched between them, thick with possibility and danger. Isabella lifted her glass to her lips, using the moment to steady herself. She studied him over the crystal rim, noting how his fingers clenched slightly around his own glass, betraying the tension beneath his polished surface.

"You assume I'd let you be part of it," she finally replied, her voice cool and precise as a surgeon's blade.

Something flickered in David's eyes – a flash of the predator beneath the tailored suit. His smirk remained, but she saw the tightening around his mouth, the slight strain in his shoulders. She had struck a nerve.

Isabella stepped forward, close enough that the fabric of her dress whispered against his trousers. Her next words cut through the space between them like shards of ice. "The past is a closed book, David. And I don't reread mistakes."

His jaw clenched, the only crack in his perfectly maintained facade. "Time changes people," he said, his voice low and dangerous as a drawn blade.

She tilted her head, letting her dark hair cascade over one shoulder as she met his challenge. "Exactly."

The air between them crackled with unspoken threats and promises. David's quiet chuckle held no humor, his eyes never leaving hers. "You always did have a way with words."

"And you always did have a problem hearing 'no.'"

Isabella turned away first, each step measured and graceful as she moved across the marble floor. Her heels clicked against the stone like a countdown, marking the distance growing between them. She didn't need to look back – she could feel his gaze burning into her spine, heavy with promise and threat in equal measure.

She knew, with the certainty of someone who had once known every facet of him, that this wasn't over. David Harrison didn't lose – he just changed tactics. But she wasn't the same woman who had fallen for his charm a decade ago.

This time, she was ready for him.