Chapter Five: Witness
956 Words
I didn’t notice who comes outside at first.I didn’t notice Sophia’s perfume.I didn’t notice the second set of footsteps.I only feel my body collapsing inward.
“Well,” Sophia says somewhere to my left. “This is dramatic.”
Her voice cuts through the fog.I try to straighten.
“I’m fine.”
My hands tremble uncontrollably now. My vision tunnels. The lights above the entrance feel blinding.Sophia steps closer.
“You look like you can’t breathe.”
And then,Adrian’s presence.Heavier.Colder.
The air shifts in a way that makes my stomach twist.I don’t need to look.
I know.Adrian Vale has stepped outside.
He doesn’t speak.He just watches.And somehow that’s worse.I feel his gaze on me,sharp, assessing.Not understanding.
Analyzing.My breathing grows erratic.
Sophia glances between us, amused.
“Did you break her?” she asks him lightly.
The humiliation burns through the panic.
“I said I’m fine,” I force out.
My voice shakes.Adrian finally speaks.
“You don’t look fine.”
His tone is controlled. Hard.
I hate that he sees this.I hate that he sees weakness.My knees threaten to buckle.
The world tilts.And then headlights flood the entrance.A black vehicle pulls up to the curb.The back door opens.
“Lyra.”
Daniel’s voice reaches me like a rope thrown into water.Relief hits so violently it almost hurts.He’s beside me in seconds.
His hands hold mine,steady, warm, careful.
“You’re breathing too fast,” he says quietly. “Look at me.”
His touch grounds me.He doesn’t hesitate.
Doesn’t question.Just helps.
“Inhale slowly,” he murmurs. “With me.”
I follow.One breath.Two.
I don’t see Adrian move, but I feel it,the tension in the air tightening.
But I was not getting better. I was not recovering. I gave Daniel the look.
And that’s when I look up.Adrian is watching.Not confused anymore.Not irritated.His jaw is locked so tight it looks painful.His eyes are darker than I’ve ever seen them.He sees everything.
The way Daniel helps me.The way I allow it.The way I lean slightly toward him instead of away.
The way I hardly catches my breath under someone else’s touch.Something flashes across Adrian’s face.
Jealousy.Raw. Immediate. Unfiltered.
“Get her in the car,” Sophia says casually, observing like it’s theatre.
Daniel doesn’t acknowledge her.
He helps me into the back seat, one hand protective at my back.Before the door closes, I meet Adrian’s eyes.
There’s a question there now.And something dangerous.You let him touch you.
The accusation doesn’t need words.The door shuts.The car pulls away.
Through the window, I see him standing under the lights, completely still.
Sophia says something to him.I can’t hear what.But he doesn’t look at her.His eyes remain on the car.On me.And for the first time tonight,he doesn’t look angry.He looks threatened.
I woke up in a hospital bed. The hospital room smelled like antiseptic and overcooled air. My throat felt raw, like I had swallowed smoke instead of oxygen.
Daniel noticed the second my eyes fluttered open.
“Hey,” he said softly, leaning forward. “Easy. You’re okay.”
Okay.
I hated that word.
A monitor beeped steadily beside me, betraying the chaos my body had staged earlier. My fingers twitched against the stiff white sheet. For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was. Then it rushed back,the rehearsal hall, Sophia’s voice, Adrian’s eyes.
Adrian watching.
I swallowed. “How long?”
“Couple of hours,” Daniel replied. “They gave you something mild to calm your system down. Your oxygen dipped. You almost fainted.”
Almost.
I turned my head slightly, staring at the ceiling. “I embarrassed myself.”
“You had a panic attack, Lyra. That’s not embarrassing.”
It is when he sees it.I didn’t say that aloud.
Daniel hesitated before adding, “The man who was watching over us..”
My heart stuttered. “I know.”
“He looked…” Daniel paused, choosing his words carefully. “Not indifferent.”
A humorless breath escaped me. “He doesn’t get to feel anything.”
Daniel studied me in that quiet way of his,the way that made you feel seen without being exposed. “Did he do something?”
No.He just tried to touch me.And my body remembered someone else.
I turned my face toward the window. The city lights blurred behind the glass, distant and unreachable.
“I’m fine,” I whispered again, even though the machines around me proved otherwise.
Some where between the steady beeping and the fading medication in my veins, I felt,something had shifted tonight.Adrian had seen.Not the singer.Not the goddess.But the fracture beneath.
Daniel didn’t argue this time.He just leaned back in the chair, arms folded loosely, watching over me like he had done a hundred times before. Not as a doctor. Not as a savior. Just as Daniel.
Tina’s little brother.
Though there was nothing little about him anymore.I remembered when he used to trail behind us,pink-cheeked, curly-haired, stubborn and sweet. Tina was always fire. Daniel was always calm water. And somehow, I had needed both.
Over the years, he had grown into a man steadier than most I’d ever known. Quiet. Observant. Gentle in a way that didn’t make you feel weak. He never pushed. Never demanded explanations. He simply stayed.
And I adored him for that.Not the way gossip would twist it.Not the way Adrian’s eyes had darkened tonight.
Daniel was safety.
He was the kind of presence that didn’t make my lungs tighten.
The kind of touch that didn’t turn into ghosts later.
The kind of man who asked, “Are you okay?” and meant it without expecting anything in return.
If Adrian misunderstood what he saw tonight, that was his burden to carry.
Daniel had only ever been my anchor.
- Writer
