There was something about silence after a storm. It was always deceptively calm, like the world was just pretending not to tremble. That was what Rielle felt as she settled back into her chair.
Aiden was long gone but his words still echoed like reminding whispers in her head. She wished she could unreal those words, or better still, never asked.
Xander. Age nine. The moment the lights went out behind his eyes. What could have happened? Or possibly, what could he have seen?
She ran her fingers along the edge of her desk absentmindedly. Her thoughts swirled with quiet intensity.
She was just about to release another sigh of wondering what Xander's shattered edges would truly look like, a knock echoed through the door.
The knock was sharp, precise and familiar. She drew in a soft breath, and sat upright, waiting for Liam to walk in.
"Come in," she said, already bracing herself.
The door swung open, and Liam stepped in. He looked tailored, and polished, as if he hadn't spent the night nursing the guilt of yesterday's boardroom blunder.
However, Rielle saw it. The subtle tension in his jaw, added with the hesitation in his eyes gave him away. She spent so long watching him to not know what went on with him.
He held a velvet box as he walked in.
"I come in peace," he said dryly, lifting the box slightly.
Rielle arched her brow. "Unless that box contains world peace or espresso, I'm not interested."
Liam sighed and crossed the room. He placed the box gently on her desk. "It's an apology. And before you roll your eyes, I mean it."
She looked at the box. Then back at him. "For which part? The attempted corporate mutiny or calling me by someone else's name?"
He winced. "Both."
She leaned back, folding her arms. "You don't believe I'm Rielle, do you?"
"I…" Liam paused, searching her face for something he couldn't name. "Yesterday, I let emotions cloud my judgment. I looked at you, and for a second, I wasn't in that boardroom. I was six months ago, staring at the back of a girl who disappeared without saying goodbye."
Rielle flinched before she could hide it.
Liam noticed, but he didn't push. Time would tell if she really was who she claims to be, or he was right.
"I know how it sounded. I embarrassed you. Undermined you. That was never my intention." He nudged the box closer to her. "I bought this as a truce. Or… penance."
With a soft breath, she opened the box.
Inside was a diamond choker. It was elegant, and minimal, the kind of expensive that whispered rather than screamed. But it wasn't the necklace that made her throat tighten. It was the way he looked at her as she stared at it.
Not with greed. Or pride. He stared at her softly. With eyes Lina wished he used to spare her a glance once upon a time.
"Why this?" she asked, voice quieter now.
"It reminded me of her," he said. "Of you. Or who I thought you were." He ran a hand through his hair. "I know I sound crazy."
She closed the box and slid it back toward him. "You don't sound crazy, Liam. You sound haunted."
Liam smiled sadly. "Aren't we all?"
For a moment, the room fell into a soft, heavy silence.
"You really want to make it up to me?" she asked.
He straightened. "Yes."
"Then stop looking for ghosts," she said, her voice steadier now. "Because if I'm going to survive in this world, I can't be haunted by someone else's shadow. I need to be me, Rielle. Not your memory of someone you lost."
Liam nodded slowly, like it cost him something. "Understood."
Still, he took a step back, his voice softer now. "I'll leave the necklace. Even if you never wear it."
He turned toward the door, then paused. "Rielle?"
She glanced up.
"I meant what I said. I'm sorry. And… I'm not giving up on figuring this out. But I'll try not to do it at your expense."
Rielle didn't respond immediately. She just stared at him, really looked at him, as though searching for the boy he once was behind the man he'd become. The storm between them wasn't over—not yet. It merely stood, waiting. Brewing. One wrong breath, and it would rise again.
She never thought Liam would look at her one day, considering how he dismissed her in the past without raising his face to look at her for years.
Liam didn't move to leave. He lingered by the door, one hand on the handle, the other clenched by his side.
"You said you wouldn't do it at my expense," Rielle said at last, her voice barely above a whisper. "But what if just being near you is expensive?"
He turned slowly, his gaze locking with hers. "Then I'll pay."
A beat.
"That simple?" she asked.
Liam took two steps forward. Then another. He didn't stop until he stood right in front of her desk again, closer than before.
"No," he said quietly. "Nothing about you has ever been simple."
Her heart beat hard against her chest, warning her, betraying her. She won't lie, her feelings for Liam, Jace and Noah still stand. Worse still, Xander just walked into the picture.
He leaned in, one hand bracing the edge of her desk as he looked at her.
"You want me to stop looking for ghosts," he murmured, his voice low, rough. "But what if the ghost is standing right in front of me, wearing your face, carrying your voice, and breaking me all over again?"
Her breath hitched. What if Liam did look at her in the past? What if all he did was an act because of Cleo?
He didn't touch her. He didn't have to. His presence pressed against her like heat, like memory, like regret sharpened into desire.
"I see her," he whispered. "When you push back in meetings. When you laugh like you didn't learn how to cry first. When you look at me like you've already survived something I'll never understand."
Her fingers curled against the armrest. "You don't know me."
"I feel I do," he said, voice shaking. "That's the part that's killing me." He chuckled. "Why is it that you have never made a sound, and just appeared all of a sudden to haunt me?"
Silence lapped between them like waves against stone. The question slapped her hard.
He reached out then, slow and hesitant, his fingers brushing hers—just barely. But the touch was electric. Devastating. It felt like a promise waiting to be broken.
"You make me want to believe in things again," Liam said, his eyes burning. "Even if you're not her. Even if you're someone else entirely."
Rielle swallowed hard. What do3s he mean by not her? Was he trying to get into her head to say who she was?
The air between them crackled with everything unsaid. And for a heartbeat, a dangerous heartbeat, she let herself lean into it. Into him.
But she pulled back just before it crossed a line. Just before it bled.
"I'm not here to make you believe in anything, Liam," she said, her voice cold now, trying to rebuild the distance he'd shattered. "I'm here to win."
Liam stepped back like she'd struck him, but he nodded, slowly. Respectfully.
Then he whispered, "Then I'll just have to fight harder."