Chapter 30: Zachary Returns

Three days after General Rhyder Drakeheir asked her that question on the windy observation tower, Raviah Solomon still had not given him an answer.

She had deliberately avoided the subject whenever his military vehicles arrived at the farm, shifting their conversations back to supply chain reports and perimeter security.

It was not because she lacked a reason. The truth was simply impossible to explain to a man who lived in a rational, orderly world.

How could she tell him that she carried the memory of his corpse, bloody and broken beneath falling concrete, while he shielded her from a horde of roaring creatures? That memory was a heavy burden she was forced to bear entirely alone.

That morning, Raviah sat at her primary console inside the farmhouse command hub, carefully reviewing a livestock delivery ledger. Her fingers swiped across the illuminated tablet screen, verifying the arrival dates of breeding cattle, swine, and poultry.

The heavy reinforced door slid open with a soft hiss. Her senior security chief stepped into the room, his expression noticeably stiff.

"Doctor Solomon," the chief called out, stopping short of the desk.

Raviah did not immediately look up from her screen. "What is it?"

"There is an unexpected visitor waiting at the southern perimeter gate," he reported.

Raviah paused, her stylus hovering over a shipment of cold-storage vaccines. "Who?"

The security chief hesitated for half a second. "Zachary Taylor."

Raviah’s fingers froze against the smooth glass surface. For a long moment, the hum of the underground ventilation was the only sound echoing through the command center.

In the rush of fortifying twelve hundred acres and monitoring regional atmospheric shifts, she had almost forgotten about him.

"Did he state his business?" Raviah asked, her tone dropping into a cool, dangerous register.

"He claims he needs to speak with you privately," the chief replied, crossing his arms. "He brought a single driver."

Raviah’s expression remained perfectly emotionless, but her mind instantly flashed back to her previous life. She knew with terrifying accuracy why he had shown up on her doorstep.

In that past timeline, Zachary had returned to her after his international business ventures began stumbling. He had arrived at her city apartment carrying grand bouquets of orchids, wearing a rehearsed mask of profound remorse.

He had claimed he made catastrophic mistakes under immense corporate pressure. He had sworn that he had never stopped loving her, coaxing her back into his life with sweet, manipulative words.

Once she softened her boundaries and took him back, he had systematically drained her medical connections, her liquid capital, and her private resources. The ultimate betrayal, abandoning her to die in a burning, beast-ridden hospital while escaping with Carmela Bane, had come later.

This time, Raviah had zero intention of playing the tragic victim.

"Let him pass through the outer barrier," Raviah commanded smoothly.

The security chief looked visibly surprised. "Are you certain, Doctor? We can turn his vehicle around at the highway turnoff."

"I am certain," Raviah said, sliding her tablet into her coat pocket. "Allow his vehicle through, but maintain full armed surveillance on him. Search his car, confiscate any recording devices, and ensure nobody enters the subterranean levels."

"Understood," the chief said, turning to relay the orders through his comms headset.

Twenty minutes later, a sleek, black luxury sedan ground to a halt along the gravel driveway outside the renovated farmhouse. The dark tint on the windows caught the midday sun as the rear door clicked open.

Zachary Taylor stepped out onto the crushed gravel.

He appeared almost identical to the man she had dumped weeks ago in her city living room. He wore a tailored charcoal suit, his dark hair was styled to perfection, and his posture radiated unearned authority.

Yet Raviah’s sharp medical eyes caught the subtle flaws in his pristine facade. She noted the faint, purple shadows lingering beneath his eyes and the tight, nervous twitch along his jawline.

He had been investigating her corporate shell companies. He had discovered just enough about Sol Haven Holdings to become deeply unnerved by her sudden wealth.

Zachary adjusted his silk tie and retrieved a massive bouquet of deep red roses from the front seat. He turned toward the wide timber terrace, where Raviah stood waiting beneath the shade of the roof.

He offered her a warm, practiced smile as he climbed the wooden steps. "Raviah."

She did not return the greeting, her dark eyes remaining as cold as winter frost.

"You shouldn’t have come here, Zachary," she said, her voice completely devoid of warmth.

His confident smile faltered slightly, but he quickly forced a look of gentle humility onto his face. "I know I made a mistake, Raviah. A terrible one."

Raviah stood perfectly still, her hands resting calmly in her coat pockets. She said nothing, letting the quiet breeze sweep across the terrace.

Zachary took another step forward, cradling the roses in his arm. "I’ve spent the past few weeks doing nothing but thinking about us. About our relationship, and the cruel way I handled our breakup."

"You handled it predictably," Raviah corrected him, her voice level.

"I was arrogant," Zachary admitted, taking another step closer. "I let the company expansion consume my mind, and I took your devotion for granted."

Raviah’s dark eyes narrowed slightly as she observed his performative guilt. "Is that the entire speech?"

Zachary’s smooth expression flickered with a flash of genuine frustration. "What do you mean?"

"You drove three hours out of the city because you suddenly realized you made a mistake?" she asked, tilting her head.

"Yes," he insisted, pressing a hand against his chest. "I did."

"Three full weeks after I threw you out of my apartment?"

Zachary swallowed hard, his throat moving against his stiff collar. "I needed time to understand what I had lost, Raviah."

A faint, mocking curve touched Raviah’s lips, though her eyes remained detached.

Understand what you lost? No. He had not realized what he lost. He had realized what he was missing out on. There was a profound difference between grief and greed.

"You don’t miss me, Zachary," Raviah said plainly.

Zachary’s jaw clenched, the performative warmth draining from his features. "You’re wrong. I love you."

"You miss the convenience I provided," she countered. "You miss having a world-class doctor to clean up your messes and manage your life."

His eyes flashed with anger. "That is completely unfair."

"Is it?"

Raviah stepped down from the wooden terrace, her boots striking the stone path. She walked toward him until only a few feet separated them.

"You never asked what I wanted when we were together," she said quietly. "You only asked what was convenient for your career."

"That isn’t true!" Zachary raised his voice, his pride cracking under her cold scrutiny.

"You are here today because your curiosity finally outweighed your arrogance," Raviah stated, locking her gaze onto his.

Zachary stared at her, breathing heavily. Then he forced another desperate, charming smile onto his face. "I came because I still care about you, Raviah. We built three years of history together."

Raviah looked directly into his dark eyes, but she did not see the polished businessman standing before her. She saw the ruined hospital wing. She saw the roaring flames licking the corridor walls, the heavy locked steel doors, and the screeching mutated beasts tearing through the lobby.

She remembered his hand gripping Carmela Bane’s wrist as they fled into an armored transport, leaving her behind in the dark. She remembered his private guards stating flatly that they had been ordered to leave Doctor Solomon to die.

Her chest hardened into pure granite.

"Then you should learn to live without me," Raviah said, her voice laced with absolute finality.

Zachary’s fake smile vanished completely, replaced by a dark, ugly scowl. "You’ve changed, Raviah."

"Yes," she replied simply.

"How?" he demanded, stepping closer. "What happened to you?"

Raviah turned her back on him, walking toward the terrace steps. "I stopped needing your approval."

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the porch.

Zachary stood frozen, his ego thoroughly bruised. Frustrated, his gaze finally wandered away from her, scanning the surrounding landscape.

That was the exact moment his expression shifted from anger to sheer bewilderment. He looked past the residence, his eyes taking in the massive scale of the property.

He saw the high, concrete perimeter walls, the glass greenhouses stretching across the fields, the massive agricultural warehouses, the livestock barns, the solar panels lining the hillsides, and the tall observation towers overlooking the perimeter.

His eyes narrowed into tight slits. "How much land did you actually buy out here?"

"That is none of your concern," Raviah said, stopping at the top of the steps.

"I heard rumors in the city," Zachary muttered, reaching into his suit jacket. "I thought they were exaggerated."

"Rumors are rarely reliable," she noted, watching him pull out his smartphone.

"I had my private investigators dig into your corporate registration," Zachary said, his fingers tapping the screen aggressively.

Raviah’s eyes hardened coldly.

Zachary slowly turned around, staring out over the vast green valley. "The original historical parcel was worth a substantial amount on its own."

He looked toward the misty hills where the solar arrays glinted in the sunlight.

"But with all these infrastructure improvements..." His voice trailed off into a stunned whisper.

Raviah remained silent, her arms crossed over her chest.

Zachary opened a PDF valuation report sent by his lead investigator. As his eyes scanned the projected figures, his expression shifted rapidly from arrogance to utter disbelief.

The raw acreage itself had appreciated sharply due to recent government zoning updates. The commercial-grade agricultural systems, industrial water filtration networks, high-capacity power grids, fortified warehouses, and blast-resistant housing represented a staggering fortune.

Yet that was not what truly shocked him.

His eyes hit the secondary development forecast. The provincial government’s northern infrastructure corridor was expanding directly toward this valley. The exact development project Raviah had anticipated months ago was already driving regional land values skyward.

Her twelve-hundred-acre estate had quietly transformed into an extraordinarily valuable piece of real estate. Zachary stared at the final valuation figure on his screen. His jaw slackened, and his eyes widened in sheer shock.

"This place..." he breathed out, turning slowly to face her. "You turned an abandoned farm into an absolute fortune."

Raviah’s expression remained perfectly calm and unreadable. She had known the valuation figures before she ever signed the deed.

Zachary, however, had only just discovered the truth.

And as Raviah watched his eyes roam possessively across her fortified valley, she recognized a brand-new, far more dangerous threat emerging.

He was no longer looking at her as an ex-girlfriend he wanted to manipulate. He was looking at her estate as something he desperately wanted to take.