Chapter 7
Harvey POV:
The car sat idling at the curb outside Freya’s apartment.
I ran my fingers deep through my hair.
God, she was stubborn.
Getting her into the car was hard enough, but letting me walk her up? That was a dead end.
All I could do was sit there and track her through the windshield as she struggled toward the building.
She moved with such painstaking care, like she was walking on broken glass.
And the worst part?
I couldn't do a damn thing to help.
I had convinced myself that coming back meant I could reclaim what we once had.
But seeing her like this, it was clear:
She was no longer within my orbit.
She was outside my control.
What happened to her?
After that fall, she was a total stranger.
She’d insist she was done with the editing, only to go behind my back and pour her heart into polishing it.
She’d keep her face cold and tell me I was a tyrant to the staff, but there was always this warmth in her eyes she couldn't hide, a smile just waiting to break through.
In those moments, I truly believed she was the Freya from two years ago.
The girl I loved down to my very marrow.
But that fall.
That inexplicable, sudden fall turned the entire office into a godforsaken icebox.
She cried with a desperation that gutted me.
She shook as if she were reliving a nightmare.
Before I could even wrap my head around it, she had forced herself back up and put an ocean of distance between us.
Cold.
Untouchable.
It was as if she had slipped into a different world entirely.
"Freya, talk to me. What’s going on?"
She took a small, tentative step forward, her voice still brittle and trembling.
"Work is over. I should go home."
"You’ve fallen twice in a single day," I said, my hand snapping out to catch her arm.
"Tell me what the hell is happening."
She turned her face toward me, staring at my hand.
Her eyes were unfocused, drowning in helplessness and a raw, visceral fear.
My heart skipped a beat—a cold realization that I was scaring her.
I pulled my hand back as if I’d been burned.
Silence stretched between us until she started walking again.
This time, her gait was steadier.
I kept pace beside her.
"Let me take you back."
"No need."
"At least rest for a minute before you leave."
"I'm fine."
A sharp pang, like a needle through my heart, made my voice rise despite myself. "You can’t drive like this, Freya! You know you can't."
She froze.
Her eyes went hollow, filled with a sudden, crushing pain.
Guilt flooded me instantly.
I lowered my voice, softened it.
"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell."
She said nothing.
I waited a beat before trying again.
"It’s dinner time. Have a meal with me, and then I’ll get you home."
"No."
The word was soft, but it carried the weight of a mountain.
"Do you have a roommate? What are you going to do about food?"
She just whispered that "No" again.
Then she stepped into the elevator, leaned her weight against the cold metal wall, and closed her eyes.
She was shutting me out, closing every door to communication.
And eventually, she disappeared into the safety of her apartment.
----
I went back to my own place, a hollow shell of a home, and sat in the dark.
I felt drifted, exhausted.
When the job offer from this company first landed, I could barely contain the adrenaline.
It meant my five-year contract with the firm overseas could be terminated in two.
It meant I could get back to Freya sooner.
Even though…
I had lost track of her years ago.
Just being back in the same city felt like a win.
I told myself I’d find her, no matter what.
Two years ago, I left for her.
Two years later, I came back for her.
Then, that day at the airport.
I was waiting for a friend when a girl climbed into the back of my car.
"Aren't we moving? I'm in a hurry."
That voice.
My heart nearly stopped in my chest.
It was the voice that had haunted my nights for two years.
I didn't dare turn around, terrified it was just another hallucination.
But my voice betrayed me—
It slipped out of my throat before I could stop it.
I terrified her.
Watching her scramble out of the car and vanish into the crowd was a special kind of hell.
I regretted not stopping her right then and there.
But if fate was going to drop her back into my life, I wasn't going to let her slip away again.
----
I tapped my phone awake and stared at her chat window for what felt like an eternity, my thumb hovering over the screen before I finally hit send.
[Have you eaten? Want me to drop off some dinner?]
I waited. The minutes ticked by, stretching into a hollow silence.
No reply.
A bitter smile tugged at my lips.
I knew this was coming.
It was the same story as two years ago.
The only difference now was that I was her boss—
She couldn't block me, and she couldn't delete me.
The Freya from two years ago—the girl who laughed easily, cried freely, and clung to me like her life depended on it—was gone.
In her place stood someone cool, independent, and impossibly stubborn.
But I could feel it in my gut:
Something had happened.
And she was hell-bent on making sure I never found out what.
I sprang from the sofa, cracked open my laptop, and logged into the company’s internal system.
I had the clearance. I could see everything.
But the trail was thin.
She’d been with the firm for about eighteen months, and on paper, she was a total rookie.
Her sales volume was modest, except for one recent deal that looked like a massive stroke of luck.
It had catapulted her to the top of the department overnight.
Then, my eyes caught a line in her hiring file.
A small note in the margins:
[Recommended by Emily]
Emily?
Why would she recommend a girl with a background in administrative work for a high-pressure sales role?
I dug deeper.
Right after I’d left for my overseas contract, Freya had resigned from our old firm.
Six months later, she landed here.
She had always hated sales.
She used to complain about how my hectic schedule was suffocating us.
So why the hell was she doing this now?
On my desk, the phone stayed dark.
The chat bubble was a dead end.
I clicked the screen off and tossed the phone aside.
She wasn’t going to write back.
I knew her too well for that.
----
The next morning, I beat Freya to the office.
Emily was already there, though.
Years of managing people told me everything I needed to know about her at a glance:
She was the loyal type, the kind of girl who’d go to bat for a friend, even if her own sales numbers were just hovering at average.
I took a few seconds to sharpen my approach.
"Emily, a word in my office."
Emily strolled in with her usual blunt energy.
"Mr. Tamer, you needed something?"
"Call me Harvey," I said, pulling up a chair to sit beside her.
I didn't want this to feel like an interrogation.
Not yet.
"I’m looking to hand-pick a few people in the department for a fast-track leadership program. To do that, I need the full picture—personality, history, the works."
I kept my voice casual, like I was just talking shop.
Her eyes lit up instantly.
"I get it. You want the lowdown on Freya, right?"
My heart took a hit.
Did she have to be that sharp?
I gave a curt nod.
"I need everything you can give me."
That was all the encouragement she needed.
She took off, a mile a minute.
"I knew it! Someone like her was bound to get noticed. Freya’s gorgeous, she’s a hustler... even after we clock out, she’s taking files home to study."
It was good to hear, but it wasn't what I was looking for.
"That’s great, but—" I had to cut her off. "I’m concerned that if I load her up with too much, she might hit a wall. She seems... fragile."
Emily jumped right in.
"Exactly! I mean, with her health being so brittle..."
Her voice trailed off, the realization of how much she’d leaked hitting her all at once.
The smile froze on her face, turning into a stiff, forced mask.
"She looks a bit delicate," Emily pressed, playing dumb to her sudden shift in mood. "That’s where my hesitation comes from."
"Well..." She was clearly scrambling for an exit strategy. "You... you probably shouldn't push her too hard."
My heart sank.
"Oh? Why’s that?"
Emily hesitated for two seconds before snapping on a perfect, professional fake smile.
"No reason. I just don't want her burning out. She works hard enough as it is."
The lead went cold.
I wasn't going to get anything else out of her today.
I stood up and offered my hand.
"Thanks, Emily. I’ll keep that in mind."
Freya arrived just as Emily was leaving.
I watched them through the glass, huddled at their desks, whispering.
From Emily’s exaggerated gestures, I didn't need to be a mind reader to know she was reporting back on our little chat.
Freya was hiding something big.
Something that had fundamentally rewired who she was.
I had to know.
I’d use every resource at my disposal to find out.
But this time, I wouldn't force her.