The days that followed were... strange.
Arvi wasn't suddenly warm. He was still cold. Still sharp. Still gave orders without blinking. But something had shifted.
He no longer avoided her eyes.
He no longer treated her like a replaceable object.
And when she walked into the room—he noticed.
Rose did too.
The man who once ignored her now asked questions. Simple ones, but questions all the same.
"Did you eat?"
"Why are your hands shaking?"
"Did someone say something to you?"
It wasn't softness.
It was something else.
Like a man trying to remember how to be human.
One afternoon, Arvi called her to the underground floor of the building. A part she had never seen before. The air was cooler. Denser. As if it carried secrets in every wall.
"Why are we down here?" she asked.
He looked at her, serious. "Because I don't trust anyone else with this."
She blinked.
He handed her a black folder. Inside were names. Maps. Financial trails.
"These are the people trying to kill me."
Rose went still.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"Because if something happens to me, I want someone who's not corrupted to see the truth. And because…" His voice lowered. "They know you work for me now. You've been watched."
Her mouth went dry. "What?"
"I've already increased your security. You won't go home alone anymore."
"I didn't ask for your protection."
He stepped closer. "I didn't ask for your permission."
She stared at him. "Why me, Arvi?"
His voice came quiet. Real. "Because I can't afford to lose the only person who doesn't lie to my face."
Her chest tightened.
It wasn't a love confession.
It was worse.
It was honesty.
That night, when she got home, two men in black stood by her apartment door.
Security.
It should've made her feel safe.
Instead, it reminded her: this wasn't just a job anymore.
She was now a piece in a dangerous game.
And the scariest part?
She wasn't sure she wanted to leave the board.
Three nights later, the first threat came.
She was working late. Alone.
Arvi was out at a meeting across the city.
A man slipped into the building—disguised as a delivery guy.
He got as far as the third floor before Arvi's security stopped him.
He was armed.
Rose was rushed into a panic room she didn't know existed.
Shaking. Breathing too hard.
Blood. Violence. Sirens.
The past came crashing in.
When Arvi arrived, he found her curled in the corner of the steel-lined room, her eyes wide with terror, lips trembling.
His men tried to speak to her, but she didn't hear them.
He stepped inside, locked the door, and knelt beside her.
She flinched.
"It's me," he said softly. "It's just me."
Her eyes filled with tears, her body frozen.
He didn't touch her. Just sat beside her.
"I should've never dragged you into this," he whispered. "You're not made for this world."
She finally turned her head toward him.
"Yes, I am," she said. "I just... need to learn how to breathe in it."
That broke something in him.
Something silent. Invisible.
He reached for her hand slowly, carefully, and this time—she let him hold it.
No words.
No explanations.
Just a girl who feared blood and a man who caused it, sitting side by side in a metal box while the world outside tried to tear them both apart.