c3 - Genuine Feelings.

“Mr. Frost, the woman’s name is Jade Collins. She’s a single mother to her three-year-old daughter, Zia Collins. There’s no father listed on the birth certificate. She’s been here for a year now, working in the Administrative Department,” Ryan reported, handing over a file.

Zane took the file from his assistant but didn’t open it.

Instead, he dismissed Ryan with a nod and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office. He gazed outside, but his eyes weren’t truly seeing anything.

He was lost—trapped—in his thoughts.

Five years ago, he had opened his eyes for the first time after his surgery, filled with the desperate hope that the first face he would see would be Jay’s.

But she wasn’t there.

No one was.

Only the doctor and the nurse had been in the room, smiling and congratulating him for the successful operation, unaware that the person he longed to see the most had vanished.

He asked them about Jay.

Zane was only told that a young lady, always wearing a mask, accompanied him during his regular visits to the hospital. Her name was listed simply as Jay. How that had been allowed, he didn’t know. But what shocked him even more was that his surgery records listed his real name—Zane Frost.

Jay had instructed the doctor to keep his identity a secret until after the surgery was successful. Naturally, his identity was also protected by medical confidentiality rules.

But the glaring truth was evident. She had known who he really was. Jay knew he was Zane Frost, and her disappearance was a clear indication that she wanted nothing to do with him.

That realization broke his heart. He had planned to confess his feelings to her that very day—because he hadn't cared what she might look like just as she worried. 

Despite all his efforts, Jay’s whereabouts and her true identity remained a mystery.

He returned to the apartment they had shared for a year, but there was no trace of her. The landlord told him that he never saw Jay’s face completely, and she had only gone by the name Jay. No surname. Just Jay.

But even that led him to nothing. So, he stopped searching. Still, he never stopped hoping he would find her again one day. One day when the heavens would be so kind to him again and send back Jay to his side.

“Mr. Frost.”

Zane’s thoughts were interrupted by Ryan’s gentle knock.

“You have a meeting in ten minutes. Do you want me to reschedule it?” Ryan, having worked closely with Zane for so long, knew that his boss was lost in his thoughts. 

“No. Let’s go.”

He went to the meeting, yes. But Zane’s mind was far from what was going on. It had been wandering since six years ago, when he was first met with darkness. 

He had settled the mastermind behind his accident. It was easy to guess—it was his stepbrother’s doing. Right upon his return, he had sent Nixon to prison. Nixon was the son of Zane’s father’s second wife, Nancy.

He had adopted Nixon, alright. Nixon was a Frost legally, alright. But it had been made clear from the start that FII belonged to Zane. Nixon wasn’t happy with that and tried to snatch the company from him after Zane’s father died.

He had tampered with Zane’s car—deliberately—sabotaging the brakes just hours before Zane drove down the mountain after inspecting their latest project. It wasn’t just an act of desperation—it was a calculated murder attempt, cloaked in twisted brotherhood.

Apparently, Nixon had been too confident that his plan would succeed. Little did he know, he dug his own grave and unlike Zane who had returned from the dead, Nixon would surely rot in his cell.

Because what he didn’t know was that Zane had met an angel—Jay. His angel, who had disappeared after making sure he was back on track again.

If only he had known that Jay would vanish like that, he would have told her sooner how he felt about her.

Now, he was lost. And maybe he hadn’t really heard her voice earlier. Maybe it was just one of those days again when he yearned to go back to that year when all he knew was Jay—her unwavering care and support, her voice that had become imprinted in his mind and soul. 

“Pull the surveillance footage from Jade’s workstation and send it to me.” Zane found himself setting aside Jay’s issue for now. Instead, he wanted to learn more about his employee’s daughter, who painfully resembled his sister, Zaira. Zaira, whom their family had lost when she was just five years old.

She would have been in her mid-twenties now. She had been missing for far too long. Zane hoped Jade’s daughter might somehow provide clues about Zaira’s whereabouts.

His parents had already died without ever seeing Zaira again. His mother passed away from a broken heart five years after Zaira went missing. Before her death, she made him promise that he would find his sister. His father, despite remarrying, always hoped to find Zaira. But his father, too, passed away without seeing her again.

Now, Zane had only one family member left. Deliberately excluding Nancy and Nixon, all he had now was his grandmother, Helena. That would make two, if he succeeded in bringing Zaira home again. So far, every lead had turned into a dead end.

He was beginning to doubt his abilities—and the extent money could help—as he had failed to find both his sister and now Jay. He felt useless. But he could only move forward, relentless in his pursuit, determined not to stop searching for them. 

“Mr. Frost, Ms. White is on the line. Do you want to talk to her now?” Ryan asked after noting his order. 

“Connect her.” Yes, of course. There’s still Catherine. 

How could he have gotten so lost in the past that he forgot about her? He still hoped to find Jay—but only to express his gratitude.

Catherine, though—Catherine was different. He had genuine feelings for her. He loved her. 

And he would never, ever hurt her again by falling in love with someone else.