HIDDEN FREQUENCIES

THE EMERGENCY VISIT

ARIANA POV

For two days, I stayed away from Novaris.

No office.

No meetings.

No reports.

No Ethan Blake.

At least, that was what I told myself.

But staying away from a place physically was easier than staying away from it mentally.

The lab followed me home.

The cracked glass.

The alarms.

The blue-white core.

The pressure in the air.

The way the chair had searched.

The way it had shifted when I touched the regulator.

Me.

I sat on my sofa with a blanket around my shoulders, staring at nothing while the television played something I wasn’t watching.

The doctor had called it rest.

I called it being trapped with my own thoughts.

The doorbell rang.

I frowned.

I had ordered nothing.

I was not expecting anyone.

For one hopeful second, I considered pretending I wasn’t home.

Then the doorbell rang again.

And again.

Then Damian’s voice came from the other side.

“We know you’re alive. Open the door before Elena starts threatening the neighbors.”

I closed my eyes.

Of course.

I walked to the door and opened it.

Elena stood outside holding two paper bags.

Damian stood beside her with a cake box.

John stood behind them carrying coffee and looking like a man who had accepted his fate.

Elena looked me up and down.

Then narrowed her eyes.

“Well.”

I blinked.

“Well what?”

She stepped inside without waiting for permission.

“The queen is alive.”

Damian followed her dramatically.

“After abandoning her people for several business days.”

John gave me a small apologetic smile.

“They wanted to check on you.”

“They wanted?”

He sighed.

“We wanted.”

Elena turned from inside my living room.

“Don’t make us sound polite. This is an emergency visit.”

I closed the door slowly.

“Emergency?”

Damian lifted the cake box.

“Yes. Emergency cake.”

“That is not a real thing.”

“It is when friendship is in danger.”

I stared at him.

He stared back seriously.

Then he added, “Also, I wanted cake.”

That sounded more believable.

Within minutes, my quiet apartment had been invaded.

Food containers covered the coffee table.

Coffee cups stood beside them.

Elena removed cushions like she owned the place.

Damian inspected my living room like a real estate critic.

John placed everything neatly on the table because apparently one responsible person was required in every group.

Elena pointed at the sofa.

“Sit.”

“I live here.”

“Then sit in your own house.”

“I was already sitting before you came.”

“And yet now you are standing. Sit.”

I sat.

Damian nodded with approval.

“Good. The patient is cooperating.”

“I am not a patient.”

“You have hospital energy.”

I looked at him.

“What does that even mean?”

“You look like someone who argued with a doctor and lost.”

John coughed into his coffee.

Elena looked at me suspiciously.

“Did you argue with a doctor?”

“No.”

“Ariana.”

“Maybe a little.”

Damian gasped.

“I knew it.”

Elena sat beside me and opened one of the food boxes.

“Eat.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“No one asked your stomach. This is emotional feeding.”

“That sounds illegal.”

“It is love.”

Damian picked up a fork.

“And if she doesn’t eat, can I emotionally feed myself?”

Elena pointed at him without looking.

“Touch the pasta before her and I’ll stab you with that fork.”

Damian slowly placed the fork down.

“I respect women.”

John sat across from us, trying not to laugh.

For the first time in two days, the apartment did not feel like a cage.

It felt loud.

Messy.

Warm.

Normal.

I hated how much I needed it.

Elena handed me a plate.

“So, madam executive assistant.”

I groaned.

“No.”

“Yes.”

Damian leaned forward.

“Actually, we need to discuss this.”

“Discuss what?”

“Your sudden rise in society.”

I stared at him.

“My what?”

He pointed at me with a breadstick.

“You became executive assistant to Ethan Blake and forgot the poor people.”

“I did not forget anyone.”

Elena nodded seriously.

“You did.”

John joined in, completely calm.

“We had to request an appointment with your emotional availability.”

I looked betrayed.

“John, not you too.”

He sipped his coffee.

“I’m only stating facts.”

Damian placed a hand dramatically over his chest.

“Before, Ariana used to sit with us, eat snacks with us, judge people with us.”

“I still judge people.”

“From a higher position now,” he said sadly. “Corporate power changed you.”

Elena sighed.

“She has a cabin now.”

Damian looked horrified.

“A cabin?”

John nodded.

“Near the CEO’s office.”

Damian leaned back like he had been wounded.

“Oh, she’s gone.”

“I’m literally sitting here.”

“No,” he said. “This is your physical body. Emotionally, you are in executive society.”

Despite myself, I laughed.

Elena smiled immediately.

“There. Finally.”

“What?”

“You laughed.”

“So?”

“So we came here to make that happen.”

I looked down at my plate.

The smile faded slightly.

“You didn’t have to.”

Elena’s voice softened, but not too much.

“Yes, we did.”

Damian nodded.

“You ignored our messages.”

“I replied.”

“You replied with ‘I’m fine.’ That is not a reply. That is a corporate press release.”

John nodded.

“Very suspicious wording.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I was tired.”

“We know,” Elena said.

“And we are not here to interrogate you.”

Damian raised his hand.

“I had prepared questions, but Elena rejected them.”

“As she should.”

“They were very good questions.”

Elena looked at him.

“Your first question was, ‘Did Ethan Blake dramatically carry you out of the lab?’”

My face went blank.

Damian slowly turned toward me.

Elena slowly turned toward me.

John slowly lowered his coffee.

I froze.

Oh no.

Elena’s eyes widened.

“No.”

I looked away.

Damian stood up immediately.

“No way.”

“Sit down.”

“He did?”

“Damian.”

“He carried you?”

“It was not dramatic.”

Elena grabbed my arm.

“Define not dramatic.”

“He helped me.”

“Helped?” Damian repeated. “Or carried?”

I stayed silent.

That was my mistake.

Elena screamed.

Damian dropped back into the chair.

John stared at me with raised eyebrows.

I covered my face with one hand.

“I hate all of you.”

“No, no,” Elena said, suddenly very awake. “We are not moving past this.”

“There is nothing to discuss.”

“There is everything to discuss.”

Damian leaned forward.

“Was it bridal style?”

“Damian!”

“So yes.”

“No.”

Elena gasped.

“It was.”

I grabbed a cushion and threw it at him.

He caught it badly and nearly dropped his cake.

“My cake!”

“You deserved that.”

John tried to look serious and failed.

“I think we should allow Ariana privacy.”

“Thank you, John.”

Then he added, “After she confirms whether Ethan looked worried.”

I stared at him.

“Et tu, John?”

He smiled slightly.

“I’m curious.”

Elena held both hands to her chest.

“He was worried, wasn’t he?”

I picked up my coffee.

“He was being responsible.”

Damian pointed at me.

“That is the most romantic boring sentence I have ever heard.”

“It was not romantic.”

“Of course not,” Elena said. “Powerful CEO carrying injured assistant from dangerous lab accident is totally normal office behavior.”

“It was an accident.”

“Yes,” Damian said. “An accident with excellent visuals.”

I tried very hard not to smile.

Failed.

Elena saw it and immediately looked victorious.

“There it is.”

“What?”

“You’re blushing.”

“I am not.”

“You are.”

“It’s the room temperature.”

Damian looked around.

“The AC is on.”

“Then it’s the coffee.”

“You haven’t drunk it.”

“Then it’s your stupidity raising my blood pressure.”

John nodded.

“That one is possible.”

They all laughed.

And somehow, the pressure in my chest loosened.

Not completely.

But enough.

For a while, nobody asked about the lab.

Nobody asked how badly I was hurt.

Nobody asked why I looked like I had not slept properly.

They talked about office gossip instead.

Elena complained about a finance employee who used too much perfume.

Damian gave a full dramatic retelling of how the cafeteria changed their sandwich filling without warning.

John quietly revealed he had once accidentally sent a serious email with a smiley face at the end and still hadn’t recovered emotionally.

Damian was horrified.

“A smiley face?”

John nodded.

“To the senior manager.”

Elena covered her mouth.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“What did he reply?”

“Noted.”

Damian leaned back.

“Brutal.”

John sighed.

“I still think about it.”

I laughed so hard my cheek hurt.

Elena pointed at me.

“Careful. Injured people should laugh responsibly.”

“I have small cuts, not a broken rib.”

“You still look like someone who lost a fight with a glass wall.”

“Thank you for the support.”

“That is support. Honest support.”

Damian picked up the cake knife.

“And therefore, she deserves the biggest slice.”

Elena nodded.

“Correct.”

John pushed the plate toward me.

“Doctor’s orders.”

“No doctor said cake.”

“Emotional doctor.”

Damian raised his hand.

“That’s me.”

“You are not qualified.”

“I have suffered deeply.”

“You once cried because your biryani was too spicy.”

“It was a near-death experience.”

Elena gave me the cake.

“Eat.”

This time, I didn’t argue.

Maybe that was why they had come.

Not to ask questions.

Not to understand everything.

Just to sit in my living room, fill the silence, and remind me that I was not alone inside my own head.

For a while, it worked.

Later, after the food was finished and Damian had somehow turned one of my cushions into a hat, the room felt lighter.

Messy.

But lighter.

Elena rested her head against the sofa and sighed.

“Honestly, I miss you.”

The words were simple.

They caught me off guard.

I looked at her.

“I’m here.”

“No, you’re not.” She looked at me softly. “Since you became executive assistant, you’re always busy. Meetings, calls, files, Ethan Blake breathing near you—”

“He does not breathe near me.”

Damian lifted a finger.

“He probably does. CEOs breathe expensively.”

John nodded.

“Premium oxygen.”

I stared at them.

“You people are impossible.”

Elena smiled, then continued.

“We’re not angry. We just miss you.”

That made something ache.

Quietly.

Deeply.

I looked down.

“I didn’t mean to disappear.”

“We know.”

“I was just… trying to handle everything.”

Elena touched my hand.

“You don’t have to handle everything alone.”

I wanted to say something.

Anything.

But the words stuck.

Because I did have to handle some things alone.

There were secrets friendship could not carry.

Not safely.

But I could still let them carry this.

The tiredness.

The fear.

The loneliness.

The ordinary parts.

So I nodded.

“I’ll try.”

Damian placed a hand on his heart.

“She’ll try. Character development.”

I threw another cushion at him.

This time, he deserved it even more.

When they finally left, Elena hugged me too tightly.

“Don’t ignore messages.”

“I won’t.”

Damian pointed at me from the doorway.

“And don’t secretly become CEO without informing us.”

“I’ll send an email.”

John smiled.

“No smiley face.”

“Never.”

They laughed as they left.

The door closed behind them.

The apartment became quiet again.

But it didn’t feel as heavy this time.

I walked back to the living room and looked at the empty plates, the half-eaten cake, the cushion Damian had left on the floor, and the coffee cups John had lined up neatly near the table.

For the first time in two days, I breathed properly.

Maybe peace was not always silence.

Maybe sometimes, peace was Elena invading my apartment, Damian turning cushions into hats, and John pretending to be serious while making the worst jokes at the perfect time.

Maybe peace was not a place I could run to.

Maybe it was people who found me when I tried to disappear.

I leaned against the sofa and closed my eyes.

Three days away from Novaris.

Three days away from Ethan Blake.

Three days away from the chair.

But not away from the truth.

The chair had searched for a match.

And for one second, it had found me.

No one else knew.

Not fully.

Not yet.

But tonight, I let myself rest.