After One Night

Chapter-Four: A Name He Should Not Know

Liora walked slowly, letting the quiet of the street settle around her, though her mind refused to settle with it. Cassian matched her steps without crowding her, as if he understood the distance she needed even though he did not like giving it. His presence felt too controlled, too sharp, the same way he felt last night when he looked at her like she had become a puzzle he wanted to solve.

She kept her arms folded over her stomach, more out of instinct than comfort. Every few seconds, she felt his eyes on her. Not in a possessive way. In a way that told her he saw too much.

They reached a narrow walkway near the old bakery. The scent of warm bread drifted out through a cracked window. Children played in the yard two houses away. It was a simple scene, but she could not relax into it. Her nerves hummed with a strange mix of fear, guilt and something she did not want to name.

Cassian watched her closely.

"You look pale," he said quietly.

"I am just tired," she repeated.

"That is not all of it."

She slowed her pace, her breath catching. "You do not know me well enough to say that."

His gaze held steady. "I know you enough to see when you are not alright."

The sincerity in his tone made her chest tense. She forced her attention forward. "Why are you even here?"

"Because you walked away."

"You expected me to stay?" Her voice shook, not from anger but from a knot of emotions she had not worked through.

"No. I expected you not to disappear."

She stopped walking. He stopped beside her. The air between them felt heavier than the quiet around them.

"Last night was a mistake," she said softly.

He stepped closer. "It did not feel like one."

"It should have."

He studied her again, his eyes searching her face like he was reading something she tried to hide. "You left this morning like you wanted to erase the night."

"Maybe I did."

"Why?"

She bit her lower lip, unsure of how much to reveal. "Because I cannot afford more complications. My life is already falling apart."

He took in her words, but he did not step back. "You think I came here to complicate it?"

She met his eyes. "You showing up here is already complicated."

A quiet moment stretched between them.

Cassian glanced toward the street where Mako waited in the car. A few people walked by, glancing at them with curiosity. This neighborhood was not used to men like him standing on the pavement in tailored black shirts and quiet confidence.

"Walk with me a little more," he said.

She hesitated but nodded once.

They moved toward a line of trees farther down the road. The leaves rustled in the mild breeze, brushing softly against each other. It helped her breathe a little easier.

"You did not answer my question," she said. "How did you even find me?"

Cassian turned his head toward her. "I asked."

"Who?"

"The people who saw you leave. Your neighbors. The shopkeeper who saw you run into the night. The woman who lives across from you. They all answered."

Liora stared at him.

"You went to my home."

"I did."

"You should not have."

"Yet I did."

She looked away. She felt exposed in a way that frightened her. He was a man used to getting what he wanted. A man who intimidated every room he walked into. A man who should not have remembered her face after last night. Yet here he was, searching for her in the simplest corners of her life.

"Kael did not even look for me," she murmured before she realized she had spoken aloud.

Cassian’s jaw tightened. "He did not deserve you."

Her throat tightened. She swallowed the ache that rose in her chest. "You do not know that."

"I know enough."

She kept walking, but her steps grew slower.

He watched her again. "You are thinking about something. Tell me."

"Not everything should be told."

"Sometimes it should."

She pressed her lips together. The nausea stirred again, softer but present. Her hand drifted to her stomach and stayed there.

Cassian followed the movement.

"You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Touching your stomach."

She froze.

His expression changed. It was subtle but sharp. His eyes lowered to her hand, then lifted to her face with a new intensity.

"Liora."

"It is nothing," she said too quickly.

"It is not nothing."

The light breeze moved her hair gently against her cheek. She tucked it back with a trembling hand.

"I have not confirmed anything," she whispered.

Cassian stepped closer, and this time she felt the pull more clearly. "Confirm what?"

She could not say it. Not yet. The fear of voicing it made her chest knot.

Instead she said, "I need to breathe."

He glanced around, then nodded toward a bench beneath a wide tree. "Sit for a moment."

She let him guide her there. Her knees felt weak as she lowered herself to the bench. He remained standing, watching her with the same silent attention that made it impossible to hide anything.

"Liora," he said again, softer this time. "Talk to me."

She closed her eyes. "I do not know how to talk about it."

"Then start with how you feel."

She opened her eyes slowly. "I feel scared."

He knelt slightly to level his eyes with hers, a position she never expected him to take. There was no arrogance in his gaze. Only a quiet force of nature that made her feel seen in a way she could not reject.

"What are you afraid of?" he whispered.

"Everything."

He held her gaze. "Did I cause the fear?"

She shook her head. "No. But what happened between us last night might have."

His breath stilled. The realization passed through him without a word, but she saw it. A shift in his eyes, a deeper focus.

"Liora," he asked quietly, "do you think you are pregnant."

Her hands tightened in her lap. She looked down, unable to meet his gaze.

"I do not know."

Cassian stood slowly, his face unreadable but intense. The wind brushed the leaves, filling the silence between them.

He stepped closer.

"Then we find out together."

She looked up quickly. "No. Cassian, this is my life. My problem. You do not have to involve yourself in this."

He leaned down, eyes locked to hers.

"I do not leave problems connected to me unattended."

Her chest rose sharply. "I am not a problem."

"You are not. But the situation is, and I am part of it."

Her voice shook. "I barely know you."

"You know enough."

"And you? What do you know about me?"

He held her gaze without blinking.

"I know enough to not walk away from you."

Her breath caught.

He extended a hand, not demanding but steady.

"Come with me," he said. "We will talk somewhere quiet."

She stared at his hand. At the world it represented. At the fear curling in her stomach. At the possibility she had not been ready to face.

Her fingers inched toward his.

She hesitated.

Cassian watched her, calm and patient, but his eyes held a sharp promise.

He would not leave this alone.

Her fingertips touched his palm.

And at that exact moment, a voice behind them cut through the quiet.

"Liora?"

She turned sharply.

Kael stood a few feet away, his clothes rumpled, his eyes wide with something between shock and anger.

Cassian straightened. The air thickened instantly.

Kael’s gaze dropped to their joined hands.

"What is going on here?"

Liora’s breath stopped.

Cassian’s expression grew cold enough to make the air drop.

And the fragile calm of the moment shattered.