Chapter 9:A word of Advice

Zoe's POV

The man was waiting for her near the laundry room.

That was how Zoe knew, almost immediately, that something was wrong.

Staff members didn't usually stay around the laundry room. There was no reason to.

The place was nothing special. It was just a room filled with washing machines, bottles of detergent, piles of towels, and the constant low sound of the building's machines working behind the walls.

But the man was standing there.

He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

A security badge was clipped to his belt.

Zoe had never seen that badge before.

She slowed down as she approached, a basket of clean towels balanced against her hip.

"Long day?" the man asked.

"Something like that."

Zoe tried to walk past him.

He didn't exactly block her way.

But he didn't move either.

Something about him made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

She knew that feeling.

She had felt it many years ago when she was a child in foster care. Sometimes, she could walk into a new home and immediately sense that something wasn't right, even when she couldn't explain what it was.

She felt that same thing now.

The man looked at her.

"You're Zoe, right? Zoe Hart."

"That's me."

He gave her a small smile.

"I hear you've been curious lately."

Zoe's expression changed slightly.

The man's voice remained calm.

Friendly, even.

That somehow made it worse.

"Poking around places that aren't really your business," he continued.

Zoe tightened her grip around the basket.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do."

His smile grew a little wider.

There was nothing friendly about it now.

"I'm just saying," he continued, "this building is a good place to work. The job is steady. You have a roof over your head. You get paid regularly."

He paused.

"That's better than what most people like us get."

Zoe stared at him.

She knew exactly what he was trying to say.

"You'd be sorry to lose all that over something that has nothing to do with you."

Zoe's stomach tightened.

"Is that a threat?"

The man gave a quiet laugh.

"It's advice."

He finally moved away from the doorframe.

Then he stepped to the side, leaving enough room for her to pass.

"Curiosity can be a dangerous habit, Ms. Hart."

He looked directly into her eyes.

"Especially around here."

Zoe said nothing.

She lifted her chin and walked past him.

She kept her back straight.

She kept her face calm.

She refused to let him see that her hands were shaking.

She refused to give him the satisfaction.

She kept walking until she reached the corner.

Only when she was certain he could no longer see her did she stop.

Zoe pressed her back against the wall.

She held the basket tightly against her chest.

Her heart was beating so hard that she could feel it in her throat.

They know.

The thought came immediately.

They know.

It wasn't only Marcus.

Whoever "R" was, they knew too.

Zoe closed her eyes for a moment.

She suddenly understood something important.

Someone knew she had been looking into the office.

Someone knew she had found things she wasn't supposed to find.

And now, they had sent someone to warn her.

It was a very clear message.

Stop looking.

Stop asking questions.

Forget what you have seen.

Or you could lose everything.

Zoe swallowed hard.

She should stop.

Any sensible person would stop.

This was not a small problem anymore.

She wasn't simply finding strange documents or noticing things that didn't make sense.

Someone had just threatened her job.

Maybe worse.

She could walk away.

She could pretend she had never seen anything.

She could return to her normal routine, clean the house, take care of her duties, collect her pay, and stay out of trouble.

It would be easier.

It would be safer.

Zoe slowly opened her eyes.

She thought about Julian that morning.

His cold expression.

The way he had dismissed her.

The way he had called her paranoid.

He had accused her of making things up just to get attention.

For a moment, a stubborn part of Zoe wanted to stop.

Maybe she should let him deal with whatever happened next.

Maybe he deserved to find out the hard way that she had been telling the truth.

She had tried to warn him.

He hadn't listened.

Why should she put herself in danger for someone who didn't even believe her?

Zoe took a slow breath.

Then another thought came to her.

Sophie.

She remembered the little girl sitting beside her on the rug.

She remembered Sophie laughing when Zoe used her silly wolf voice.

That small memory softened something inside her.

Sophie had nothing to do with any of this.

She didn't deserve to be caught in the middle of something dangerous.

Then Zoe thought about Julian again.

She remembered the way he acted.

Cold.

Distant.

Always in control.

But sometimes, beneath all that coldness, Zoe had seen something else.

A quiet sadness.

A kind of pain he never talked about.

She didn't understand it.

She didn't know what had happened to him.

But she knew it was there.

And then she thought about herself.

Eighteen years.

Eighteen years of learning how to survive.

Eighteen years of being moved from one place to another and learning things the hard way.

One of the biggest things she had learned was that she couldn't simply walk away when someone was in danger.

It didn't matter how difficult that person was.

It didn't matter if they had hurt her feelings.

It didn't matter if they didn't appreciate her help.

If someone was in danger, Zoe couldn't turn her back.

That was simply not who she was.

So even though every part of her was telling her to be careful, she knew she couldn't completely walk away.

Not yet.

That night, Zoe didn't sleep.

Again.

She sat at the small desk in her room.

A notebook lay open in front of her.

She had bought it earlier from the little shop on the corner.

It wasn't anything special.

Just a cheap notebook with plain pages.

But tonight, those pages were going to hold everything she knew.

Zoe lit a candle.

She didn't turn on her lamp.

Suddenly, the idea of switching on the light made her uncomfortable.

It felt too obvious.

Too easy for someone watching to notice.

So she sat in the dim candlelight and opened the notebook.

Then she began writing.

Everything.

Every date she could remember.

Every strange thing she had heard.

Every conversation that had seemed unusual.

Every name.

Every small detail.

Every coincidence she had once ignored.

For the past eight months, Zoe had noticed things that didn't make sense.

At the time, she had told herself they were probably nothing.

A door that was unlocked when it should have been locked.

A conversation that stopped when she entered a room.

A person appearing in a place where they had no reason to be.

A document that seemed out of place.

Things like that.

Small things.

Things that were easy to ignore when they happened separately.

But now Zoe was putting them all together.

She wanted to see the whole picture.

Maybe, when everything was written down, the truth would finally become clear.

She was three pages into her notes when she heard a sound.

Knock.

Zoe froze.

Her pen stopped in the middle of a sentence.

She listened.

Nothing.

Then she heard it again.

A soft knock on her door.

Very quiet.

Almost as if whoever was outside didn't want anyone else to hear.

Zoe's heart immediately began beating faster.

She looked at the clock.

It was well past midnight.

Nobody came to her room at this hour.

Nobody.

Her fingers tightened around the pen.

She slowly looked around the room.

Her eyes moved from the desk to the bed, then to the small table beside it.

She didn't know what she was looking for.

Anything.

Something she could use if she needed to protect herself.

Another knock came.

Zoe stood very still.

"Who is it?" she called.

Her voice wasn't as steady as she wanted it to be.

She waited.

There was a long pause.

Zoe barely breathed.

Then she heard a voice from the other side of the door.

Low.

Quiet.

And strangely hesitant.

A voice she knew immediately.

"It's Julian."

Zoe's eyes widened.

She hadn't expected him.

Not now.

Not after everything that had happened between them.

Her heart beat even faster.

Julian spoke again.

"I need to talk to you."