Chapter 310: Alive

Kai did not look up.

He stood still with his eyes fixed on the disaster spreading down the front of his jacket, and he did not look up, because he was busy holding on to his own temper with both hands.

The air had gone thick and dangerous, the kind of silence that collects before a storm breaks. The two security men behind Dennis had stopped breathing. Gloria had gone very still. Even the begging employee had forgotten his own misery, too busy watching what was about to happen to the person who had ruined the Chairman’s immaculate white suit.

Jessica gasped. It was such a simple sound, but it cut through the silence like a bell. "Oh, God! Oh God, I’m so sorry!"

She grabbed the napkin from where it hung at her apron waist and launched herself forward, pressing it against the damp fabric of his jacket with frantic motions. "I didn’t see the floor, I’m so sorry, I was rushing, I didn’t mean to—"

Kai blinked once. Slowly.

His anger was already over the boiling point, after a morning of headache and rage. A clumsy staff member. Coffee everywhere. His suit ruined. On any other day, he would have said something cold and cutting, something that would send her running to the back in tears like all the others.

But that voice.

He lifted his gaze, and the world stopped.

Like the universe itself had caught its breath and refused to release it. The woman before him was still apologising, still dabbing uselessly at the stain with a napkin that was making it worse, but Kai could not hear a single word she was saying. His entire consciousness had narrowed to a single point, and that point was the face in front of him.

Jessica Ashfang.

He blinked again, harder. Then again.

She was still there. Still real. Still close enough to touch.

The room was beginning to recover around him. He could sense movement at the edge of his awareness.

"Sir, I am so sorry." Gloria was there in a heartbeat, appalled. "She’s new, she’s only been with us for a couple of days and she gets nervous, it’s completely my fault—" Her hand closed round Jessica’s wrist to haul her back. "Sidonie, that’s enough. Come away."

Kai snapped back into his body with enough force to make him dizzy. "Jessica," he said, reaching to grab her other wrist.

The name came out rough, barely more than a whisper, but it landed like a thunderclap. Gloria’s grip loosened. Jessica looked up at him, startled, her brow creasing in confusion. And their eyes met.

For a suspended moment, neither of them moved. Jessica felt something odd wash over her, a sensation so strange and familiar that she could not immediately name it. He looked familiar, like she knew him. Apart from the fact that she just recognised him as the man who had been running towards her at the shopping centre. Standing closer and looking into his eyes made her heart palpitate in a way she didn’t understand.

It felt like déjà vu. The kind that sends a shiver down the spine for no reason at all.

"Jessica," Kai said again, and this time his voice cracked on a sound that might have been a laugh or a sob.

Before anyone could react, he pulled her into his arms, folding her against his chest with a desperation that made the people around the restaurant gasp.

He held her like she might disappear. Like the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth was the pressure of his arms, and if he loosened his grip for even a second, the universe would take her back. His voice was muffled against her hair, spilling words she could not follow.

"You’re alive. You’re alive. You’re actually alive. Oh, goddess. I knew it. I knew it, I knew it."

Jessica’s body went rigid in his embrace. Her hands hung useless at her sides. She was acutely aware of everything at once—the heat of him, the strength of his arms, the way his chest heaved against hers, the audience of shocked employees watching from every corner.

Gloria’s face had gone from grey to white. Dennis stood motionless, his expression caught between disbelief and something else. And Alicia, stood four feet away with her hand still half raised from where she had been holding his, watching the exact thing she had been running down forty floors to prevent happen anyway, in front of the members of staff, with her feet nailed to the floor.

Kai pulled back just enough to look at her, but he kept his hands on her shoulders, as though he couldn’t bear to break contact entirely. "I’ve been looking for you," he said, his voice thick. "For three years. I never stopped."

His brow furrowed then. Something was wrong. He hadn’t caught her scent at all, and he had breathed her in—there was nothing. The familiar notes that had lived in his memory for three years were gone. Her scent had changed. She smelled like a human.

Why can’t I smell her? The question surfaced through the chaos in his mind. Why doesn’t she smell like Jessica?

But Jessica had finally regained control of her limbs. She planted both hands against his chest and pushed, hard enough to break his grip. Kai let go, though every instinct in his body screamed against it, and stood in front of her, staring at her face like a man studying scripture.

"I’m sorry," she said, and her voice was steadier than she expected. "But I think there’s been a mistake. My name is Sidonie. I’m not Jessica. I don’t know who that is."

Kai stared blankly at her for a moment. Then he laughed.

It started as a short, disbelieving sound, then grew into something bigger, something that shook his shoulders. The kind of laughter that comes when a man has held his breath for three years and finally, finally, allows himself to exhale. His eyes glistened, bright with tears he did not bother to hide.

"You’re Jessica," he said. "I’d know you anywhere. I’d know you if I were blind, deaf, and lost in the dark." He reached for her hand, and his fingers closed around hers with certainty. "I’m not letting you go. Not again. I’m never letting you go."

Jessica snatched her hand back as if his touch had burned her. The things Sebastian had told her about this man came rushing back in a flood—how he didn’t respect women.

And here was a man who had grabbed her, held her, and was now holding her hand without being invited to do any of it. So that was one thing Seb had been absolutely right about.

But he was also the Chairman. And she had rent, and a friend who had given her money she had not yet paid back, and a job she badly wanted to keep. So she swallowed her fury down and made her voice as polite as she possibly could.

"I’m very sorry, sir. I don’t know you and I don’t know who you’re talking about." She took a step backwards. "Please excuse me. I need to use the restroom."

And she turned and walked away, straight through the pass and into the back, and did not look round once.

Kai moved to follow immediately. Nothing in the world could have stopped him. But a hand landed on his shoulder, and he turned, and found Dennis looking at him with a calm expression. His Beta gave the smallest shake of his head.

Give her room, Alpha, Dennis said down the mind-link. She doesn’t seem to remember you, or anything about the two of you. If you push her too hard, you’ll frighten her more.

Kai looked at the doorway she had gone through. The wild thumping of his heart had not slowed, and the need to chase, to catch, to hold, was roaring in his ears.

But Dennis had been his brother’s Beta for years, and had proved his loyalty to the family. If there was one man whose counsel Kai trusted when his own judgement was compromised, it was Dennis.

And Dennis was right. There hadn’t been any recognition in Jessica’s eyes.

Kai let a real smile spread across his face. It was a strange sensation, like using a muscle that had been paralysed for years. But it grew naturally, because for the first time in three years, Kai felt something other than emptiness.

Did you see her? he asked through the link. His mental voice was light, almost giddy. Do you recognise the woman we just met?

Dennis’s lopsided smile answered him before his words did. I do, Alpha. I recognise Miss Jessica Ashfang. He paused. But let’s not create a scene. She works here. There will be time.

Kai nodded. He nodded because Dennis was right, and because the most important thing—the only important thing—was that she was here. She was alive. Everything else could wait.

Gloria stepped forward, still pale, her voice tripping over itself as she began to apologise. "Sir, I am so sorry. Truly. She’s new, she’s still learning, and I take full responsibility. I’ll have your jacket and shirt taken to the laundry immediately. It won’t happen again, I promise you—"

Kai turned to her. For a moment, all Gloria could see was the same cold, unreadable expression every employee dreaded. Then he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, and his face broke into a smile so warm and genuine that Gloria nearly lost her balance.

"Don’t you worry your pretty head about any of it," he said cheerfully. "Everything that happened here this morning was supposed to happen. All of it. Including the coffee."

Gloria blinked. "Sir?"

"Who employed her?" Kai asked, his voice carrying a cheerfulness that seemed to startle everyone in the room. "The girl. The one who just went to the back."

Gloria’s brow furrowed in confusion. She was still trying to understand the series of events that had just unfolded, why the Chairman had hugged a waitress, why he looked like a man who had just won a war.

"I—I interviewed her, sir. HR handled the employment. It was a standard process. I can get the file if you need—"

"No need." Kai’s smile widened. "Thank you, Gloria. You’re getting a raise." He patted her shoulder and walked away as if he had not just left every employee around the restaurant spellbound.

Gloria opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, but nothing came out.

***

Somewhere in a dark room, lit only by a weak yellow light, a door banged open, and a young woman walked in.

She was not tall, but she carried herself like someone who did not need height to command attention.

Her heels clicked across the floor like a countdown, and her voice arrived before her body had fully entered the light.

"You’re losing focus."

A man sat near the window, his face half-hidden in shadow. He did not turn at the sound of her voice. "I’m not losing focus."

The woman laughed. It was not a warm sound, but it filled the room anyway.

"Really? Because from where I’m standing, you had all the time in the world to strike. And yet here we are. Still waiting. Still watching." She crossed her arms, her shadow stretching long across the floor. "It’s as if you don’t want this justice anymore."

The man’s jaw tightened. For the first time, he turned his head, and the low light caught the hard edge of his profile.

"I have everything under control," he said.

His voice was calm, but there was a weight beneath it now, a quiet finality that left no room for argument.

The woman stared at him for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Then she shook her head slowly, the movement carrying something between disappointment and warning.

"See that you do," she said. "Because time is running out. And I will not wait forever."

She turned and walked back toward the door. It closed behind her with a soft click, and the man was left alone in the dim room, staring into the sky with his own thoughts for company.