Twice His, Once Deceieved

The Masked Stranger

Sandra spun around so fast she nearly knocked herself into the balcony railing.A man stood at the far edge of the balcony, one hand resting lightly on the iron rail, completely still. He wore dark clothing a black collarless shirt, dark jeans and across the upper half of his face, a mask. Simple, Black. It covered his eyes and the bridge of his nose but left his jaw, his mouth, the sharp line of his chin fully visible.She should scream.

Her throat tightened, but no sound came.

"I’m sorry.” His voice was quiet. Low. He held up both hands, open palms, and took one slow step back. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I’ll leave.”

"Don’t.” The word came out before she knew she’d chosen it.He stopped.Sandra pressed her hand flat against her breastbone,counting her own heartbeats. They were too fast. She didn’t know if that was fear or something else entirely.

"You should call security,” he said, but he didn’t move. “That would be the sensible thing.”

“I know.” She looked at him really looked. He wasn’t threatening. He stood loosely, no tension in his shoulders, weight balanced like a man who knew how to be still. “Who are you?” "Zane.”

"That’s not an answer. Zane who?”, "Just Zane.” The corner of his mouth lifted. Not quite a smile. Something more careful than that. “And you’re Sandra.”She went rigid. “How do you know my name?” "I saw you at the charity event last month.” He said it easily, unhurried, like he’d anticipated the question. “You were the one who talked to the children’s ward patients like they were people, not obligations. You remembered the nurse’s name without being told twice.”

Sandra blinked. She hadn’t known anyone was watching."You climb buildings,” she said finally, because that was the part that made the least sense."At night, yes.” He glanced over his shoulder at the Pacific Heights skyline, the city lights pressing up against the dark. “I find it clarifying.” "That’s insane.”Probably.” He turned back, and even behind the mask she could feel his gaze settle on her face. “Are you all right? You’d been crying.”Her chin went up. “I’m fine.”

You’re not.” He said it gently, without cruelty. “You don’t have to be.”Something loosened in her chest at that. Something she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.She looked away, out at the garden below, the hedges silvered with moonlight. “It’s my wedding night,” she said, and heard how hollow it sounded even as she said it.

A long pause. “I know.”You don’t seem surprised.” “I’m not easily surprised.” He moved to the far end of the railing and leaned against it, putting distance between them deliberately, she realized. Making himself smaller. Less threatening. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t even know you.” “That might be exactly why it’s easier.”She considered him. The mask was strange but she’d read enough novels to know that anonymity could be its own kind of mercy. No reputation to protect. No audience watching for weakness."He outlined our arrangement,” she said quietly. “Tonight. Like a business contract. Monthly obligations. No emotional entanglement.” She laughed, and it came out wrong, too sharp. “He handed me a schedule.”Zane was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was careful. “That sounds like a man who’s been hurt badly.”That sounds like an excuse.” “It is one. It’s also possibly true.”

Sandra turned that over. She’d been so focused on her own shock, her own humiliation, that she hadn’t considered what it meant that a man would build walls that high."Did you love him?” Zane asked. “The original intended was it ever”

"No. He was my sister’s fiance. I met him for the first time at the altar.” She pulled her cardigan tighter. “I stepped in because my family needed saving. Which sounds very dramatic. It is very dramatic. I am apparently now living inside a period novel.”That did make him smile she saw it in the curve of his mouth."What do you actually love?” he asked. “Not the situation. You.”

The question caught her off guard. No one had asked her that in a very long time.“Art,” she said. “Old things that someone made with their hands. The way a painting can hold a whole century inside it and still look different depending on the light.” She paused. “Books. The library here is extraordinary. I found a first edition Keats this afternoon. My hands shook.” “Keats.” Something shifted in his voice. Not quite softening, but changing. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”

Don’t...But she was almost smiling now. “Don’t quote him at me on a balcony in the moonlight. I already feel like I’m in a novel,Fair. He was quiet for a moment, comfortable in the silence in a way that felt rare. “For what it’s worth the situation you’re in sounds impossible. But you handled it by choosing.” I chose someone else’s life.”You chose to protect people you love. That’s still a choice.She didn’t have an answer for that.

They stood together in the dark for a long time, not speaking, watching the city breathe below them. It should have been strange. It wasn’t.

I should go in,” Sandra said at last,Yes... He straightened from the railing. “I’ll find another building.” You could......She stopped herself.

He waited.Same time tomorrow night, she said quickly, before she could reconsider. “If you happened to be climbing in this area again.”

The smile came back, fuller this time. “I might be.”She went inside and closed the glass door and stood with her back against it in the dark bedroom, breathing.She was smiling.For the first time since she had put on her sister’s wedding dress, Sandra Holt was actually, genuinely smiling.