Chasing The Heart Of Fortune

Chapter 2: Unspoken Words

Zane sat in the shadows of the dim hallway, his mind racing. He had been ready to go, sure, ready to simply put the evening behind him, but something made him freeze. He did not know why, but seeing Seraphina standing beside that man had rocked him. He didn’t know what it was about the casual intimacy of the man leaning to her and Seraphina’s response that made his skin crawl.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, Zane felt this foreign emotion twisting dangerously inside his chest and breaking free something within him that he’d locked away. It wasn’t like he’d done Seraphina any favor. She was merely his assistant and nothing else. But the thought of her with someone else, someone who made her seem so small, so fragile, had sparked something inside him at that point, Something primal.

The man had left. Seraphina was by herself, but the anxiety did not disappear. She was at the other end of the hall, her back slightly stooped as if she were trying to vanish into the walls. He could still hear the low hum of the gala outside the walls, but in this silent space, all he noticed was her.

What was she doing here? What did she want from him?

Unbeknownst to him, he was already approaching her. His feet were silent, but his heart pounded in his chest, and he could hear it drumming in his ears. He knew he shouldn’t be here. This wasn’t his place. But with every step towards her was inevitable, like a magnetic pull that he could not resist or understand.

When he got to her, he paused. She hadn’t seen him yet; her eyes were down at the ground in front of her. She was in the presence of Zane, and it was there in full measure, but she did not know it.

“Seraphina," his voice sliced the silence like a blade.

She jerked her head up and her eyes got big in surprise. “Mr. Maxwell,” she faltered, as if startled at his sudden appearance. She blushed, and for an instant, Zane thought he glimpsed a look of fear in her eyes. But before he could even process it, it was gone.

Zane swallowed the pang of guilt that had flashed through him. How was it that he felt as if he were spying on something personal, something into which he had no business prying?, "Who was that man?", he burst out, the question tumbling out before he could halt it. He didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but something in him had broken.

She hesitated. Her stare moved on, roaming the hallway in what seemed like an attempt to escape. "He’s just someone I know, A friend," she whispered, hardly above that.

"Just a friend?" Zane demanded again, his voice more curt than the former.

She had sounded rehearsed in her reply. Zane didn’t know why, but he thought she was lying. His gut told him there was more to this tale than she was admitting. He’d been in the game long enough to read when people were holding back. And she was, at this very moment, hiding something.

“Why did he have to put you in the… odd position?”, Zane pushed, the words coming before he could consider them. He softened his tone at the end and wished he hadn't. He didn’t have to be the one to soothe her. That wasn’t his role. But there was something, the look of distress on her face had done something to bring something out that he didn’t want to acknowledge.

She blushed to a higher color and turned away from him, dropping her shoulders. “It’s....nothing,” she muttered, her voice so quiet that Zane had almost missed it. "Really, Mr. Maxwell, it’s nothing."

Zane stepped closer, and the air seemed to thicken between them. He wasn’t accustomed to this kind of pain. After all, people were supposed to be honest with him, he was Zane Maxwell, But here she was slipping through his fingers like sand. He couldn’t understand it, He needed to understand it.

(“You are lying,” he said, softly and forcefully).

The words floated between them as if a challenge. Seraphina didn’t even blink, but her balled fists at her sides gave away the fight she was having inside.

“I don’t lie,” she said, a trace of defiance in her voice. “I don’t have to explain anything to you.”

Zane’s brow furrowed. She was strong, stronger than he anticipated. He flexed his fingers at his side. Ground down deep seated frustration. She wasn’t afraid of him. She wasn’t intimidated by his power. And for some reason, that just made him more curious.

“You don’t have to say anything,” he murmured under his breath. “But I’m not going to go on acting like nothing has happened.

The silence grew between them, dense and awkward. Zane could sense her freezing, felt her inability to keep looking him in the eye. There was a certain something in her, something masked by that placid exterior. And the longer she denied it to him, the more he vowed that he would find out.

“I don’t want to be any trouble,” she finally said, her voice light, almost apologetic.

Zane blinked, taken aback by the vulnerability that had leaked out in her words. “You’re not making trouble,” he replied, in a tone uncharacteristically soft. "But I’m not going to stand for this.”

Something flickered across her face - fear?, Guilt?, He wasn’t sure, But it vanished so fast he almost doubted it had happened at all.

She didn’t say another word and she left turning up the pace of her steps as she walked toward the door on the opposite side of hallway. Zane watched her walk away, something twisting in his chest. Read More Rob Thomas: Why did he have the sudden sensation that he’d just lost something?

He’d been used to control, he’d been used to having what he wanted when he wanted it. But with her it was different. She just slipped through his fingers, and the more he tried to hold on tight, the farther she seemed to go.

Seraphina Taylor had become his mystery, his obsession. As much as he wanted to believe that there was nothing up his sister’s sleeves, he could not shake the niggling sensation that she wasn’t telling him something, something that had it been spoken aloud would prove everything he ever knew about the world from a child was a lie.

He started to pick up his phone, but he paused midway through dialing the number he had in mind. His mind was clouded, it would not settle. He pushed the objects back into his pocket instead and ran a hand through his hair, questions still buzzing in his mind like a thousand bees.

Who was she really?, What was she hiding?

And what the hell did he care for, anyway?

Zane pivoted and headed what he hoped was the way out, his mind occupied by Seraphina’s arbitrary arrival in it. He’d never been touched by anything like that in his life. But in the back of his mind, he was slowly consumed by fear that he had just opened a door that he may not be able to shut.