𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐦 & 𝐇𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐦

Chapter 18

Some people search because they're curious.

But.

Zoya searched because she was terrified.

To her, Erum had always been the calm in the chaos.

The anchor. The fireproof thread that held everything together when the world around them fell apart.

And the fact that someone had been behind her - not once, but twice - trying to end her life in ways far too calculated to be coincidence... it was unsettling. No. It was terrifying.

That fear had crawled beneath Zoya's skin and refused to leave.

And so she had buried herself in her lab.

She didn't eat properly. Barely slept. Every second wasted outside this basement felt like a second lost in protecting Erum. Because if the person behind this tried again and Zoya hadn't found them first, she'd never forgive herself.

Erum knew this.

And that's why, even with her body still aching and her stitches pulling with every step, she walked toward the basement.

Not out of suspicion.

But because if Zoya was fighting this hard for her, she deserved not to fight alone.

She walked down the hallway carefully. The ache in her side reminded her she wasn't healed. But that wasn't enough to stop her.

The basement light still spilled under the door, which clearly indicates that Zoya was still working and still searching.

Erum didn't knock.

She opened the door and stepped into the cold light of obsession.

The lab looked worse than before. There were papers everywhere, cracked open files suspended mid-air, and a dozen windows blinking across the main monitor. Her name was on half of them.

Zoya stood with her back to the door, focused entirely on a file in her hand, which closely resembled Erum's reports of coma.

Erum finally spoke. "You haven't slept."

Zoya startled, turned sharply with eyes wide, defensive. But when she saw Erum, her shoulders dropped.

"Did I wake you?"

"No," Erum said. "You woke something else."

Zoya blinked, confused.

Erum stepped further inside. "What are you looking for?"

There was a pause, a really long one. And then:

"A face," Zoya whispered.

She turned back to the screen and tapped through several layers of data, flicking between grainy images - most likely from CCTV, timestamps, and even artificial reconstructions.

"I've checked hospital records, street cams, drone sweeps. Nothing. Whoever attacked you - twice - knew how to erase traces. But I found inconsistencies in the timing logs of the second hit. Whoever it was, they had help getting in. Someone with access."

Erum's breath hitched.

"You think it was an inside job? And someone helped them?"

"I think yes and yes," Zoya said, voice hard now. "But every time I get close, something glitches. Systems shut down. Files corrupt. It's like someone's still watching. Like they're trying to stay one step ahead."

Erum walked to her side, slowly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Zoya looked at her. And her expression broke.