Chapter 6
649 Words
CHAPTER SIX:
FOUND IN THE DARK
Greyson learned quickly that money could open doors, but it couldn’t open her.
Weeks turned into months. Petra’s name stopped appearing where it used to. Familiar streets went quiet. Faces that once knew her shrugged when asked. She had erased herself with precision born from practice.
It unsettled him.
Greyson buried himself in work, flights, contracts, meetings that blurred together,but at night, when the city finally slept, she returned to him. In memory. In questions that wouldn’t rest.
Was she safe?
Was she cold?
Had he pushed too hard?
He replayed their last conversation endlessly, wondering which word had done the damage.
Greyson had earlier instructed his men to search the city for Petra’s whereabouts.
After searching for months, The lead came late, and quietly.
She was at a new place. Different city. Different name on the door.
He went for her, he didn’t announce himself. Didn’t use power or titles. He paid anonymously, like any other man who wanted an hour of forgetting.
When the door opened, the air left his lungs.
She stood there,older somehow, more guarded. Beautiful in the same way a storm is beautiful when you know it can ruin you.
Recognition hit her halfway through the room.
Her breath caught. “You again?”
“Yes.”
Something unreadable crossed her face,surprise tangled with resignation. Then she smiled, the familiar mask sliding into place.
“Well,” she said lightly, stepping closer, “this must be another big day for me.”
The words cut deeper than he expected.
“I didn’t come for that,” he said quietly.
She laughed, but it was hollow. “You always say that.”
He reached for her, not to pull her close, but to stop her from turning away. His hand closed around her wrist, gentle but firm.
“Please,” he said. “Just listen.”
She looked at him then. Really looked. And for a split second, the mask slipped.
But fear rushed back in fast.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said. “You don’t belong in this version of my life.”
“I belong wherever you are,” he replied,
the truth spilling out before he could stop it.
Her jaw tightened.
“That’s a mistake.”
She tried to step back, but the room felt too small, the air too thick. Emotions pressed in from all sides, unfinished conversations, unspoken longing, desire that hadn’t cooled despite time and distance.
Their bodies remembered what their minds tried to forget.
The closeness became unbearable.
She kissed him first, sharp, desperate, like she was trying to prove something. He answered, slower, deeper, hands cradling her face as if grounding her mattered more than anything else.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, she whispered, “This doesn’t change anything.”
“I know,” he said. “But it changes me.”
“Can you please quit this lifestyle?”
“I’m sorry “ she muttered “I’m addicted to it”
Silence followed, while she dozed off.
Before dawn, she was gone.
Again.
He woke to an empty room and the familiar ache in his chest, but this time, something else lingered too.
Certainty.
He reported everything to Drey, his assistant later that day, voice controlled but eyes dark.
"I really don’t know why you would be wasting your efforts on someone who doesn’t want to be saved,” Drey said carefully. “Some people can’t be helped.”
He nodded. “I know, but I can’t get myself to stop wanting her”
“If you feel she is worth your love then….”
But deep down, Grey also knew this:
He didn’t want to save her.
He wanted to choose her, again and again, until she believed she was worth choosing.
And no distance, no disguise, no disappearing act can stop that.
- Writer
