Chapter 6: Unanswered, Unspoken

Two weeks.

Fourteen nights of silence.

Not a single word from him.

I told myself I wouldn’t care. That I had sent the message without expectation, that I hadn’t sat there staring at my phone for hours after.

That I hadn’t reread it a dozen times, wondering if he had seen it, if he had thought about replying, if he had even considered me at all.

But deep down, I knew the truth.

Because even though he never answered, he never truly left.

I felt him watching.

Every night, long after the marina had quieted down, after the lights on the docks dimmed and the water stilled, I felt him there.

I wasn’t supposed to know. He was careful. Always just out of sight, a shadow that never touched me.

But I knew he was there. I could sense it in the way my skin prickled, the way the hairs on my arms stood up, the way my body reacted before my mind could catch up.

Some nights, I swore I heard him breathing.

Other nights, I stepped outside just to test it, just to feel the weight of his presence pressing against the night air.

But when I looked, I found nothing.

He never made himself known.

Never crossed the line.

Never came to me.

And that was what drove me insane.

---

I had kept myself busy. That was the only way I survived those two weeks.

I threw myself into work—long hours coding at my laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard until the screen blurred and I could barely think.

It was the only thing that had ever given me control, the only thing in my life I had ever been able to rely on.

The life I had built was one of careful detachment—freelancing, working from home, making sure no one had power over me.

I had moved onto this boat for a reason. To get away. To stay unseen.

But now, I felt seen in ways I never asked for.

Because I didn’t just suspect he was watching me.

I suspected he wasn’t the only one.

I had always known my father might find me eventually.

I just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

The moment I saw him, my stomach twisted into knots.

Eduardo stood at the dock, hands in his pockets, his gaze sweeping over my boat like he had every right to be here.

I froze. My chest tightened.

I hadn’t seen him in years—not since I walked away from that life. But there was no mistaking him—the way he carried himself, the quiet arrogance, the barely concealed authority of a man who worked for my father.

The man who once worked for me.

I had known Eduardo my entire life.

As a child, he had been a constant shadow at my side, the guard my father assigned to me when I was too young to understand what that meant.

He had been the one to escort me to school, to watch me as I played in the gardens, to stand outside my door at night like a sentry.

I had trusted him once.

But I wasn’t a child anymore.

And Eduardo wasn’t just a bodyguard now—he was a soldier, a loyal dog willing to fetch for the man who owned him.

And right now, he was fetching me.

I forced myself to step onto the deck, keeping my posture relaxed even as every nerve in my body screamed for me to run.

“Long time, Nat,” Eduardo said, stepping onto the dock. His voice was smooth, calculated, the same as it had always been. “You look well.”

My hands curled into fists at my sides. “What do you want?”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Just delivering a message.”

I swallowed hard as he reached into his coat and pulled out an envelope.

A thick, cream-colored envelope, the kind my father always used. The kind that meant this wasn’t a request—it was an order.

I didn’t take it.

Eduardo sighed and tilted his head. “Your father wants you to come home.”

My blood ran cold. “I’m not going back.”

He took a step closer, just enough to make the space between us feel smaller, heavier. The way he used to when I was young—when he was still pretending to be my protector.

“You haven’t even opened it,” he said.

“I don’t need to.”

His lips twitched like he was amused, but I saw the warning flicker in his dark eyes. “Nat. Be reasonable. He’s willing to let things go, but he wants to see you.”

I let out a sharp, bitter laugh. “That’s a lie.”

Eduardo’s expression hardened. “He doesn’t like being ignored.”

A chill ran through me, but I didn’t let it show.

I reached out, plucked the envelope from his hand, and without breaking eye contact, I ripped it in half.

His jaw twitched. Just like it used to when I disobeyed him as a child.

“That was unnecessary,” he said.

“So was coming here.”

I stepped forward, closing the space between us, my voice dropping low. “Tell him to stay the hell away from me.”

For a second, something flickered in Eduardo’s expression—surprise, maybe even amusement—but then he simply nodded, slipping his hands back into his coat.

“As you wish,” he said, turning to leave.

I didn’t let out the breath I was holding until he was gone.

But even after he disappeared down the dock, I knew this wasn’t over.

Because Eduardo never came without a second visit waiting in the wings.

And my father never gave up.

His POV – The Moment That Changed Everything

I had ignored her text.

For two fucking weeks.

Not because I hadn’t wanted to respond—but because I wanted her too much.

I had spent those nights convincing myself that staying away was the right thing to do. That if I let it die, if I kept my distance, I could get her out of my system before it was too late.

But then I saw him.

Standing at the edge of her dock, looking at her like he owned her.

Like she belonged to him.

I was already moving before I realized it, muscles locking, fists clenching.

I shouldn’t have cared.

I had spent two weeks trying to pretend I didn’t give a damn, trying to convince myself that I could just forget her.

But the second she stepped back, the second her hand curled into a fist at her side, I felt something inside me snap.

I had no right to intervene.

No claim to her.

But that didn’t matter.

Because the second I saw fear in her eyes, I knew I was done pretending.

I wasn’t just coming for her.

I was taking her.