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chapter 9
Zainab pov
I notice it the moment I step outside my apartment.
Nothing looks different. The street is the same—vendors calling out, cars inching forward, the morning sun too bright for how little I slept. But something feels… steadier. Like the air around me has weight now. Like I’m being held upright by something I can’t see.
The unease that’s been living under my skin since yesterday is quieter.
Not gone.
Just… managed.
I shake the thought off and head to work.
At the office, Rowan isn’t there.
The absence hits harder than I expect. My chest tightens, a small irrational disappointment blooming before I can stop it. I tell myself it’s relief. It should be relief. Being around him feels like standing too close to a fire—warm, dangerous, impossible to ignore.
Still, the calm doesn’t leave.
Instead, it follows me.
When someone bumps into me in the hallway, a hand steadies my elbow before I stumble. I look up—
And freeze.
He’s tall. Not intimidating like Rowan, but solid. Grounded. His eyes are sharp, assessing, yet oddly gentle—like he’s already decided something about me and isn’t changing his mind.
“Sorry,” I say quickly.
“You’re fine,” he replies.
His voice is calm. Deep. Familiar in a way that doesn’t make sense.
He releases my arm, but the moment he does, I feel it—an immediate loss of balance. Not physical. Emotional. Like something was briefly holding me together and then stepped back.
He notices.
His jaw tightens just a little.
“You must be Zainab,” he says.
My heart skips. “Do I know you?”
“No,” he answers smoothly. Too smoothly. “But I know of you.”
That should bother me more than it does.
“I’m Kael,” he adds. “I’m consulting with the company for a few days.”
“Oh,” I say. “Right.”
We stand there, the hallway buzzing around us, yet the space between us feels strangely insulated. Safe. Like nothing bad could reach me as long as he’s standing here.
It’s ridiculous.
And yet—
“You look tired,” Kael says, not unkindly.
I let out a small laugh. “Is it that obvious?”
“Only to people who pay attention.”
Something in his gaze shifts then. Softens. Not desire. Not curiosity.
Responsibility.
It hits me so suddenly my throat tightens.
“Are you okay?” he asks quietly.
The question shouldn’t feel so heavy. But it does.
Like he’s asking something deeper than how I slept.
“I think so,” I say. “I just… feel strange lately.”
His eyes darken—not with alarm, but recognition.
“That happens sometimes,” he says carefully.
“When you’re about to learn something important about yourself.”
A chill runs down my spine.
Before I can respond, someone calls his name from down the hall. Kael steps back, creating distance that feels intentional.
“If you need anything,” he says, holding my gaze, “you won’t be alone.”
I watch him walk away, my heart pounding for reasons I don’t understand.
Only later—when I realize I made it through the entire morning without feeling that gnawing fear—do I understand the truth I’m not ready to face yet.
Someone is watching over me.
And whoever he is…
He’s not doing it by accident.
- Writer
