Bewitched His Soul

18 years later

Aria had always been interested in drawing and painting since childhood. Her parents thought it was a hobby, but as time passed she became serious about art.

Whatever time was left after schoolwork, instead of playing with her friends she locked herself in the room and started practicing painting. She learned about a famous artist's life journey and got to know how to pursue her career in this field.

On her sixteen birthday where all kids ask for clothes, jewelry or other luxury goods, Aria had wanted to visit a painting exhibition in X country.

This exhibition was very popular and held only once a year, unfortunately, the tickets were in high demand and had already sold out by the time she expressed her wish.

Aiden could not bear to see his daughter disappointed and pulled some strings to get the VIP tickets. Visiting the exhibition and closely looking at those paintings had mesmerized her, and felt she was in heaven.

She had wanted to get the autograph of one of the artists, but the queue was very long and there were a lot of reporters doing the interview.

Aria stood at a corner for half an hour and seeing there was no way she could get the autograph, dejectedly turned around to walk out.

Luckily at the last moment the artist called her and even offered to take a picture with her. That was one of the happiest days for Aria and she had framed that picture in her room.

When it was time to choose a college major she had told her parents she wanted to go to art school. Her brother Asher had chosen to take business management. Her parents had no problem with their choice and supported them wholeheartedly.

Even though Aria and Asher were twins there was nothing much common in between them.

Aria was silent and reserved and hated people coming into her personal space. In school she had two to three friends and during her leisure time she was not a fan of physical activities and instead chose to read comics.

When her mother hosted any parties she tried to stay in her room and refused to come down. It was not easy for her to mingle with the guests.

But Asher dragged her down, promising he will not leave her side. Cursing and groaning Aria got ready and joined the party. True to his word Asher was always with her, she greeted the guests and answered one or two questions then Asher continued the conversation.

Asher was very charming and humorous which easily got the people's attention. Wherever they went Asher was the life of the party and Aria blended into the background easily.

While Asher was patient and always had a smile on his face, Aria was moody and short tempered. Her grandmother said Asher resembled their father and Aria is more like their mother.

In the final year of college she wanted to find inspiration for her paintings and what better way than travelling for it.

She had gone on a solo trip to the mountains and had never felt so motivated. The peaceful environment, forest, sunset and sunrise had given her ideas on how to choose her color palette for her upcoming art pieces.

She had completed college and had topped in her batch. Her teachers had a very high opinion of her and everyone said she had a bright future.

She even sold a few of her paintings for a high price. Now she wanted to expand her horizons and wanted the whole world to recognize her art.

Italy, in the hometown of famous artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and many more. Here she will get good exposure and meet a lot of clients. So she decided to move to Italy for the time being and her father Aiden had gotten her an apartment.

Aria wanted to open an art gallery which will be exclusive only with her paintings, but her experience was limited. Having her own art gallery was not easy and there was a lot of work that went behind it.

So she decided to display her paintings in an exhibition with other artists. Whoever's paintings get sold the most will be noted by the gallery curators and then they will collaborate with the artist to open their own art gallery.

Aria paid the taxi driver and took all her luggage out. Her father made sure the apartment was well furnished and she needed to carry just her daily necessities. Her luggage was huge not because it had clothes or shoes but contained all her art supplies.

Her flat was on the fifth floor and she dragged the luggage to get inside the lift. She was holding two boxes in her hand while she had another large bag and a handbag on the floor.

She pressed the lift button, but suddenly a hand came between the lift doors and a man entered the lift. The boxes were large and tall which made her see only the backside of the man.

He was tall, broad shouldered and was wearing a suit, giving off a powerful kind of vibe. She got a feeling that he may be a handsome and attractive man, based on his backside.

When she reached her floor she dragged all her items towards her flat.Her arms were hurting a lot, if she had known it was so much trouble she would have accepted the watchman's offer to help her carry the luggage upstairs.

Her mother was worried about her staying alone in a new city and asked her to inform them as soon as she reached home. She went to take her cell phone from her handbag but panicked when she did not find her bag.

Aria checked once again and saw that the entire luggage was present except her handbag. She remembered she had her bag when she got out of the taxi and maybe she left it in the lift.

She quickly opened the door to run to the lift but was very much stunned when she found the bag on the door mat. She immediately opened the bag and noted all the belongings were there inside.

Aria called out loudly if anyone was there but saw no one was nearby and had no idea who kept the handbag there.. Then it flashed may be the person in the lift must have helped her.