PROLOGUE

SECRET LOVE NOTES

She must have written to him a thousand times in that journal of hers. He never saw, of course, nobody did, really. Michael Corinthos III wasn't a guy who associated with the lower life forms walking the halls of Madison Prep, at least she kinda had him pegged that way.

She'd had a huge crush on him since about 3rd grade, really, she'd just never spoken up. Either the timing wasn't ever good enough, or she'd lose her nerve. Now they were in high school.. She was, rather..

Michael, however, was on his way to Pentonville for murdering his father's wife Claudia because she'd kidnapped his baby sister Josslyn and was going to try and kill his mother when Carly tried to stop it from happening.

He'd made one simple mistake.

Now he was staring down the stretch of a lengthy prison sentence.

He wouldn't get out until he was 21 at the very least. It seemed like forever and she knew the chance to tell him how she really felt was slipping rapidly through her fingers like the sand in an maybe it was a blessing in disguise that she left her journal full of love letters to one Michael Corinthos III behind in an English classroom that Kristina Corinthos Davis had the next period.

Kristina found those letters.

And she did what any sister who wanted the best for her brother would do. She slipped them to him as the police officers lead him away to the waiting prison bus.

He looked at her and then at the journal and she explained quietly, "There's something in there you need to know."

He took the journal and hid it carefully so it wouldn't be confiscated.

And for the next few years, he read it front to back.

By the end of his sentence, the thing was worn thin and almost falling apart and he felt much like the journal looked.

But he had a tiny shred of hope.

Even though he was damaged goods now, he still held out that small glimmer of hope.

The sad thing is that when he did get out, he couldn't find the girl who'd written the journal.

He wouldn't until he was 23 and going through a breakup with his girlfriend Kiki.

But when he did..

CHAPTER ONE

COINCIDENCES

It's been said over and over again that in life there are no such thing as coincidences. So when the journal fell out of his closet while he was digging through it for something entirely different, Michael, of course, thought nothing of it. He put the journal aside but he didn't toss it back into the closet for whatever reason.

And for the next few days, the journal and it's mysterious writer weighed heavily on his mind. But Kristina didn't know a name, so she couldn't help him find the girl who'd written it. He figured that even if she could, things might have changed between then and now. Look at his life, all the changes in it.

Whoever wrote all that in her journal might have moved on. Or forgotten all about him. But he hadn't forgotten about her. And he'd really have liked to know who she was. But he just felt like it was impossible, like maybe he wasn't meant to know.

But, like a wise person once said. "There is no such thing as coincidence"

And he was about to get his answers after all this time. And Lana was about to get what she'd always wanted. A chance with Michael Corinthos III.

He'd just stepped onto the elevator in his apartment building about 2 weeks later when a girl called out "Hey sir! Can you please hold the door?" and rushed in, arms full, soaked by the rain that'd started falling an hour or so earlier.

Michael steadied her and then said with a smile, "It's really coming down now, huh?" as Lana nodded and said with a shrug "It's my own damn fault. I could've gotten a cab but noooo.. Had to be stubborn and walk all the way back tonight."

"From where?"

"Work." Lana answered as she tried to control her horomones. She kept trying to tell herself that Michael III was a crush and it was just a phase in her life when she was a kid. He'd never noticed her then, why would he now?

And even if he did, they were hardly in the same social circles. She was from the bad part of town, he was a mob kingpin's son for crying out loud. It'd never work and if it did, she'd mess it up sooner or later.

She tended to be good at making a real mess of things.

"Where's work?" Michael asked, curious. But he also had this feeling of deja vu, like he'd seen her before or something, or he knew her somehow. She looked at him and said quietly, "One of the clubs downtown. I'm a bartender, sometimes I dance on the bar. It pays the bills while I go to school. Do I know you?" while mentally kicking herself.

Did she know him.. That was a joke if she ever heard one. Of course she knew him. Until she'd lost the damn thing, she'd had a journal full of observations and fanstasies about him.

But hey, she was trying to save face and play it cool.

Michael shrugged and then said "It is a small town.. Maybe I met you before somewhere?"

"Where'd you go to high school?" Lana asked as he said at the same time as her, "Madison Prep."

She smiled a little and said quietly, "On a scholarship though. I think I remember you.. It's Michael, right?"

"Yeah.. I can't.. I don't remember your name, actually.I feel really bad about that."

"Don't. It's not like it's your fault, Michael." Lana said casually as the elevator dinged and came to a stop, the door sliding open. She thanked him for helping her with her things and stepped off the elevator her legs shakier than they'd ever been in their life.

"Wow.. I only thought he was hot in high school. And he's still the same moderately nice guy." Lana mused with a smile as she turned the key in the lock of her apartment.

On the elevator, Michael noticed a slip of paper that she'd dropped. The writing was enough to stop him in his tracks and then he realized just who the girl on the elevator just now had been.

And he sighed. She must have moved on, after all.

She hadn't remembered him just now.

But knowing her name made him curious about her, so naturally, when he was back in his own apartment, he signed on to his laptop and started to dig around. Just a little bit, he thought, just enough to satisfy the curiousity, try to figure out what she saw in him back then.

He found out a lot about her and then he realized that he'd actually had a crush on her first.. But it was before his coma, when they were both in about the 5th grade. This made him smile a little and smiling felt good because with his recent breakup and dealing with what happened to him in Pentonville and his father's death now, he hadn't had a whole lot to smile about.

He got the feeling that like most other things in life, he'd bumped into her on the elevator tonight for a reason.

In her apartment, Lana decided ot just google him a little bit, maybe see what he'd gotten up to when he'd gotten out of prison. She'd been out of state, in college so she was out of touch with nearly all of her friends from high school.

She searched and read and realized that anything she felt then hadn't really ever disappeared. She'd just sort of forgotten it with everything else she had going on in her life during that time period. And her mother, before she'd become an addict and Lana's life had fallen apart had always told her "There's no such thing as a coincidence, Lana. If something happens, usually when you stop and think it over, there's a damn good reason for it. It's up to you to find out if you want to know that reason or not."

Lana realized that maybe she kind of did want to know why their paths crossed again. But she was also worried that maybe he had his own life now. Why just start popping up at random and building a friendship when she knew her little secret, the things she fantasized about him back in high school?

If he'd ever found out, she'd have been mortified, definitely. Because he probably would have laughed his ass off.

Little did either of them realize that their meeting had happened for a reason.. And it was the first of many ahead.

And that eventually, the two would get to know each other personally.

For now, both parties involved just thought it was a coincidence.