All Chapters of You Shouldn’t Have Found Me : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The lights went out.For one terrifying second, the entire penthouse vanished into darkness no hum of appliances, no glow from the hallway, nothing but the sound of three people's breathing suddenly too loud in the black.Zara froze.Then Sebastian's hand found hers in the dark, closing around it fast and sure."Stay behind me."His voice was low, controlled but she could feel the tension running through his grip, wound tight enough to hurt. Nathan was already moving somewhere behind them, footsteps nearly silent against the floor, the faint rustle of fabric the only sign he hadn't stopped moving."Sebastian," Zara whispered."I'm here."That was all he said. Somehow it was enough to steady her breathing, just slightly, just enough to keep her upright.The darkness felt different now than it had a minute ago. It wasn't simply the absence of light anymore. It felt deliberate like someone had reached into their home and switched off the world around them on purpose, and was standing som

The message stayed frozen across every screen in the room.“YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT HER.”Zara stared at it, unable to draw a full breath.Sebastian stepped in front of her, blocking her view of it entirely. "Kill every screen."Nathan moved fast, but before he reached the control panel, the screens went dark on their own all of them, all at once.Then one flickered back to life.A live feed.Zara's bedroom.Sebastian's eyes narrowed at the angle. It was too high, too close, positioned somewhere inside the room itself, aimed directly at the bed.Nathan stepped closer to the screen, studying it. "That isn't from the security system.""Then where is it coming from?""I don't know."Sebastian's phone rang in his hand, the sound sharp in the quiet.Unknown number.Nobody spoke. He answered on the first ring."Who are you?"Static crackled on the line. Then a man's voice came through calm, unhurried, almost amused."You still don't understand, Sebastian."Zara's blood ran cold at the sound of

Zara couldn't move.Someone had helped her escape.For three years she had believed that the night she left Marcus was nothing but a blur of fear, desperation, and instinct. She had never remembered how the door opened. She had never remembered who had whispered for her to run.Now that voice was coming back to her."You don't remember me, do you?"Zara stared down at Sebastian's phone."No." The word barely made it out of her mouth.The caller laughed softly. "But I remember you."Sebastian's expression hardened. "Tell me your name.""No.""Then tell me what you want."Another pause, unhurried and deliberate."I want her to remember."Zara's chest tightened. "Why?"The voice grew quieter, almost intimate now. "Because she owes me."Sebastian's eyes shifted to her immediately.There it was. The first crack in the story.Zara swallowed hard. "Owe you what?""Your freedom." A beat. "I gave you a way out."Sebastian stepped closer to the phone. "You didn't save her."The voice laughed ag

The moment the screen went black, Sebastian turned toward Nathan."Find him."Nathan was already moving, fingers flying across the keyboard as he pulled up every security feed connected to the building, working around the system that had been compromised only minutes earlier."I've got something."Sebastian crossed the room. "What?"Nathan brought up another camera. The service corridor. A figure walked through it at a deliberate, unhurried pace. Dark coat, same height."He's leaving through the east service entrance."Sebastian's eyes hardened. "Don't let him."Nathan grabbed his phone. "Security is moving."Zara stayed where she was, staring at the blank monitor. The man's face was still burned into her mind, not as a stranger anymore, but as a memory. A memory she'd spent years refusing to look at directly.Sebastian noticed. "Zara."She looked at him."What happened that night?"Her lips trembled. "I don't know.""Try."She closed her eyes. "I remember Marcus. He was angry. We wer

For the first time in weeks, Zara woke up without fear.No footsteps outside the door. No unknown number lighting up her phone. No photograph waiting to ruin the morning.Just sunlight slipping through the curtains and the steady sound of breathing beside her.She opened her eyes. Sebastian was still asleep, his arm stretched across the space between them, hand resting loosely against her waist, like even unconscious, some part of him still needed proof she was there.Zara smiled. Small. Almost unfamiliar.Peace.She turned onto her side and studied his face. The man who had terrified half of New York. The man who could silence a boardroom with a single look. The man who had once told her, in the earliest days, that he didn't need anyone.Yet somehow he'd spent the last few weeks making sure she never had to face anything alone.Her fingers drifted toward his face. Before she could touch him, his eyes opened."You're staring."She froze. "I wasn't.""You were.""You were sleeping.""I