POV: Elara
Elara had learned quickly that survival in this building meant observation, not speaking, not reacting, not assuming.
Just watching.
And she also learned that there are many competitions out here. Most people don't like her here, especially Seraphina, who kept giving her death glares, issuing threats, sabotaging her work, and trying to embarrass her at every opportunity. There is Kaelion, her boss; she thought he was a cold-hearted, arrogant man, but what she saw today shocked her to the core. He's actually nice to his staff, but not her.
Because what she saw today made absolutely no sense.
It started small.
Almost invisible.
While she was coming from the printing machine, where she had made copies of documents, she saw the cleaning staff woman drop a stack of folders near the executive hallway. Papers scattered across the marble floor, panic flashing across her face as she rushed to pick them up.
Before Elara could even move to help her pick them up, she saw Kaelion bent down first.
He actually bent down to help her pick up the papers, and not in a dramatic or performative way, but just quietly.
He helped her gather the papers, handed them back, and said something low that Elara couldn't hear.
The woman looked shocked, then grateful, then relieved.
He walked away like nothing happened, like kindness was just another task on a checklist.
Elara stood frozen behind the corner wall.
Because that man?
That man was not the one who looked at her as if she were a problem to be solved; that was not the man who spoke to her as if every word she said were an inconvenience.
So which one was real?
Later that day, she saw him again.
This time, with one of the junior analysts, the guy looked nervous. Sweaty. Probably expecting to get destroyed over whatever mistake he made.
Kaelion didn't raise his voice; he didn't humiliate him; he just corrected him. Direct. Firm. Professional.
And then
"Fix it and send it back," he said. Calm. Final. Done.
No cruelty.
No cutting words.
Nothing.
Confusion twisted in her chest,why is he like that with them… and like that with me?
The thought stuck, is he really this kind, and the put up the act of being a terrible person or something has really gotten into him today, but if he is this kind with other staff and cruel to me, because he was cruel, arrogant, and condescending to me from the very first time he saw me.
The thought came running, maybe… maybe I'm just unlikeable. The idea slipped in before she could stop it.
Maybe that's why nobody ever chose me.
Memories she hated surfaced anyway.
The orphanage halls, the waiting, the hoping,
the quiet disappointment when families picked other children.
Over and over again.
Maybe something is wrong with me, her throat tightened.
Because the only people who had ever made her feel… wanted…
Were few.
Lena.
Always Lena.
Then Lena's older brother Jace, who was older than them, but he never stopped calling, never stopped reminding her she mattered.
And Lena's parents, who treated her like she belonged at their dinner table even when she technically didn't.
That was it.
That was her entire proof that she wasn't disposable.
By 5:45 p.m., she was emotionally exhausted.
By 6:00 p.m., she packed up fast.
She needed to go home, needed quiet, needed something that didn't feel like constant evaluation.
Her apartment was small.
Not the small that felt suffocating but the kind that reminded you, quietly, that you were still at the beginning of something. A single window. A narrow kitchen. A couch that had seen better days. Walls that held more silence than memories.
But it was hers.
Every inch of it. Every chipped corner and uneven tile, no expectations. no watching eyes. no rules whispered behind her back, just her.
She kicked off her shoes by the door, not bothering to line them up properly like she usually did. Her bag slipped from her shoulder and landed with a dull thud against the floor. For a second, she just stood there, staring at it like even the effort of picking it up felt like too much.
Then she walked to the couch and dropped onto it, her body sinking into the worn cushions.
She stared at the ceiling.
One minute.
Then another.
The quiet wrapped around her, heavy but not entirely unwelcome. It pressed against her ears, filling the spaces where office voices had been, where office laughter had been.
Her chest tightened.
She reached for her phone.
And called Lena.
It rang once.
Twice.
Then—
"ELARA!"
Lena's voice burst through the speaker, loud and bright and so alive it almost didn't belong in Elara's quiet apartment. The connection crackled slightly, the distance obvious, but it didn't matter.
For a moment, everything felt lighter.
Elara let out a weak laugh, her eyes closing. "Hi."
"You sound tired," Lena said immediately, her tone shifting in that way only she could manage, still warm, but sharper now, observant. "Are you eating? Are you sleeping? Are you punching rude people in the office?"
Elara huffed softly, a real smile tugging at her lips this time. "Working on that last one."
"You'd better. I trained you for that."
God.
She missed her.
Not just her voice. Not just the way she talked too fast when she was excited or how she always asked too many questions.
She missed her presence.
The way Lena filled a room without trying. The way silence never felt heavy when she was around. The way everything, no matter how messy or uncertain, felt manageable.
Phone calls weren't enough.
They helped, but they didn't fix the hollow space sitting quietly in her chest.
She needed her here.
Sitting cross-legged on this same couch. Stealing her snacks. Talking nonsense. Complaining about things that didn't matter to make the real things feel smaller.
She swallowed.
"When are you coming back?" Elara asked, softer now. Careful. Like asking too directly might break something.
There was a small pause on the other end.
"Soon," Lena said, and her voice gentled. "I promise. And when I do, you're telling me everything. Every single detail. No skipping."
Elara exhaled slowly, her grip tightening slightly around the phone. "I will."
A beat.
"I can't wait."
And she meant it.
Because lately
Something felt off.
Not in a way she could explain. Not something she could point at and name.
But it was there.
In the way her thoughts drifted when they shouldn't.
In the way, certain moments felt heavier than they should.
In the strange, quiet feeling that things were moving, shifting just beneath the surface of her life.
Like the ground beneath her feet wasn't as steady as it used to be.
And the worst part was that she didn't understand why.
Meanwhile across the city…
Kaelion sat alone in his office, the Quinn file open on his screen.
Page after page of history.
Financial records.
Legal documents.
Old news archives.
And one sealed section marked:
THORNE INTERNAL INCIDENT — YEAR CLASSIFIED
His jaw tightened.
Because he remembered that year, even though he was still little, the investigations, the media pressure, his father almost losing everything, his childhood almost collapsing with it.
He opened the sealed file.
And froze.
Because inside was a photograph.
Old.
Slightly faded.
A man standing outside a courthouse, and beside him, is a woman, his wife, holding a baby wrapped in a pink cloth, both holding hands, smiling and looking straight at the camera.
Happy
The baby is Elara
Kaelion leaned back slowly, mind racing
Is this really a coincidence? he thought
Could it be?
And if she knew who he was and what her father had done to his family
Then why would she come here?
Why would she work here?
Unless
She didn't know.
His phone buzzed again.
New message from a private investigator.
"There's more you need to see. Not safe to send digitally. Meeting required."
He stared at it, then replied to the message instantly, saying, "Meet me tonight."
Across the city, Elara curled deeper into her couch, phone still in her hand after Lena hung up.
Lonely.
Tired.
Trying not to feel like she was always the one fighting to be enough, and somewhere between them.
The past was already moving.
Already catching up.
Already preparing to collide with both their lives.
Because when Kaelion met with his investigator at his private suite, what he said to him was that he was not the only one investigating Elara and her past, and "There's evidence someone inside your company already knows who she really is."