Chapter three

Zara (Lauren)

I didn’t move until the door closed behind Julian.

Not when Liam’s voice cracked.

Not when he demanded I take off the mask.

Not even when his hand hovered near my face like he might rip it away.

I stood my ground, silent and still, while the man who destroyed me tried to piece together the memory of a girl he thought was gone.

And he almost saw her.

Almost.

But the contract saved me.

Clause Twelve, Subsection C.

I made damn sure it was in writing.

Because Liam Hunter had taken everything from Zara. And though I might be standing in front of him now, he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at the shell she became, the weapon she turned into.

The moment he turned his back to me, something in my chest eased. Just a little. But it didn’t feel like victory. It felt like surviving again. Something I had become too good at.

You can tell him I don’t need a bodyguard, he’d said.

Typical. Still drowning in pride. Still convinced he could do this alone.

But that’s what made him weak.

That’s what got people like me killed.

I took a breath and finally glanced around the office. Sleek, modern, expensive. But nothing about it felt warm. Just steel, glass, and power stitched together to hide how hollow it all was.

I watched him walk to the edge of the window, his shoulders tense. He looked… tired. Not just physically. It was in his posture, the way he held his hands behind his back, fingers twitching like they were used to holding something they didn’t deserve.

I remembered those hands.

Once, they had held me. Gently. Like I was something precious. Fragile.

But I wasn’t fragile anymore.

My comms device buzzed softly in my ear.

“Report,” my supervisor’s voice said.

I pressed the small mic near my jaw. “First contact made. Subject recognized familiarity but no full ID. Contract clause enforced. No breach.”

“Good. Continue observation. No emotional interference, Agent Vale.”

He knew, but since he knew, why did he push me to do this?

I swallowed.

Too late.

I tapped the mic off.

Liam turned slightly, his eyes sliding back toward me. “You planning to just hover there in silence the whole time?”

I didn’t answer.

I couldn’t trust my voice.

He frowned. “You’re good at it. The whole ghost act. Cold. Detached. But your eyes…..” he stepped a little closer….“they remember me, don’t they?”

My jaw tensed beneath the mask.

Because he was right.

They remembered everything.

He stared at me a moment longer, then scoffed under his breath and pulled out his phone. “Julian. Get someone to show her to the east wing. Third suite. And make sure it’s stocked……she looks like she lives on adrenaline.”

He ended the call without waiting for a response, then turned his back on me again like I was a memory he didn’t want to remember.

I didn’t move until footsteps returned minutes later. A younger guard,maybe early twenties, stiff posture and trying too hard,gave me a tight nod. “This way.”

I followed in silence. Through marbled halls and modern stairwells. Past cold glass walls and polished steel. This wasn’t a house,it was a fortress pretending to be a home.

The suite they brought me to was larger than some apartments I’d trained in. Sleek floors. A queen bed tucked near the window. Neutral tones. A wardrobe I wouldn’t use. A bathroom with enough mirrors to haunt me if I wasn’t careful.

He was still Liam Hunter,untouchable, ruthless, calculating. But his empire had grown darker than I imagined. He wasn’t the high school heartthrob who gave me butterflies anymore. He was a king of shadows now. Powerful. Unreachable.

And I was supposed to protect him.

I closed the door behind me and leaned against it, exhaling slowly.

It shouldn’t hurt.

I’d trained for years. Buried Zara beneath layers of steel and silence. Learned to shoot, to fight, to disappear in a crowd. I’d been thrown into rings, interrogated, broken and rebuilt. And every time his face flashed in my head, I used it as fuel.

I survived him. I was supposed to be over him.

So why did my chest feel like it was caving in?

I walked toward the bed and sat slowly, staring at the floor as memories clawed their way up from beneath the surface I had buried them under for years.

His laugh.

His arms around me after prom.

The initials bracelet we both had.

He still wore his and I still had mine.

Pathetic. Right?

I know. But part of me still wanted that bracelet so I had “my” grace dug up and I removed the bracelet.

The heartbreak in his eyes when he let me go,and the worse heartbreak in mine when I realized he’d never loved me the way I loved him.

I clenched my fists.

He hadn’t even recognized me. Not really. Just the flicker of memory in my eyes. But my body remembered. My heart remembered.

And that terrified me.

Because this wasn’t just a mission anymore.

This was a war.

Between the ghost I had become and the girl I swore I’d never be again.

I sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, fingers threaded together so tightly my knuckles were white. The silence pressed in around me like an old blanket I hadn’t worn in years,one that used to comfort, but now just itched at my skin.

I took a deep breath.

Held it.

Released it.

And for the first time in what felt like forever, I let my mind drift,far from this cold suite, far from Liam Hunter and his haunted eyes.

Kaylee. Nick.

Their names curled in my mind like warm smoke.

Are you both okay?

I hadn’t heard from them in years. After everything crumbled,after prom night, after I disappeared,I’d cut all ties. I had to. For their safety. For mine.

Kaylee would’ve never let me go if she’d known where I was heading. She would’ve held my hand, wiped my tears, and told me love wasn’t supposed to hurt the way Liam hurt me. She would’ve pulled me into one of her ridiculous blanket forts and talked until I laughed again.

Nick… he would’ve gone after Liam with blood in his eyes.

He always did, he even did…that night. And when I vanished, I knew he’d blame himself.

I’m sorry, I thought. For leaving without goodbye. For making you wonder.

But it was safer this way. My world had changed. I wasn’t the girl they knew. The one who wore mismatched socks and danced in the rain. That girl died the night my heart shattered under a thousand lies.

Now, I lived by different rules.

Now, I was Lauren Vale.

An agent. A ghost. A blade.

I stood up, pushing those memories back down, where they belonged.

But even as I crossed the room to unpack the sparse contents of my black duffel bag, I knew one thing for certain,

If I let my guard down in this house… if Liam pulled even one more thread loose…

Zara would come back.

And I wasn’t sure I’d survive losing her all over again.