C H A P T E R : 20

135 8 2
                                        


I was standing near the window when I saw her.

She was sitting on the lounge, knees tucked in slightly, a bar of chocolate in her hands like it was the only familiar thing left in this house. She wasn’t really eating it. Just holding it, breaking small pieces off and letting them melt slowly between her fingers. Her gaze was unfocused, drifting somewhere far away where I couldn’t follow.

She looked small there. Smaller than the room. Smaller than the weight pressing against my chest.

I adjusted my cufflinks once before speaking, more out of habit than necessity.

“We’re going out tonight,” I said calmly. “There’s a place we need to be.”

She looked up at me immediately.

Her eyes always did that when I spoke. Wide. Searching. Like she was waiting for permission to hope.

“Where,” she asked softly.

I loosened my tie, pulling it free just enough to breathe. “Blackthorne Vale.”

Her brows furrowed.

It was good. It meant she hadn’t heard of it. People who knew that name usually didn’t live long enough to forget it.

Before I could say anything else, I heard it.

Footsteps.

Not hurried. Not cautious. Heavy and deliberate. The kind of steps that didn’t belong to staff or guards. The kind that knew exactly where they were going.

My body reacted before my mind did.

I turned sharply toward the hallway.

My heart stopped.

For one fraction of a second, the world tilted, like reality had cracked open just enough to let something impossible crawl through.

No.

That wasn’t possible.

He was dead.

I had seen the reports. The confirmations. The silence that followed a name when even enemies stopped speaking it.

And yet…

He stood there.

Alive.

Unharmed.

Watching.

Kim Taehyung.

The room went still.

I felt her move beside me before I heard her breathe in sharply. Her entire body stiffened, then froze, like she was afraid that blinking would make him disappear.

“Oppa…”

The word left her like a prayer breaking.

She was on her feet before I could stop her, before anyone could. She ran, not caring about distance or dignity, her steps uneven as emotion took over.

He caught her easily.

One arm wrapped around her, solid and grounding, the other cradling the back of her head as she broke against his chest. She cried into him, hard and unrestrained, the kind of crying that comes from weeks of swallowed fear finally collapsing.

“It’s okay,” he murmured, voice low and steady. “I’m here. I’m back now.”

I stood there.

𝐌𝐀𝐅𝐈𝐀'𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐕𝐄 ||𝐉𝐉𝐊 𝐅𝐅🔞||Where stories live. Discover now