CLOSING IN
(Everything is about to change
Shadow_vee
Two days later, it felt like the storm had passed or maybe it had only gone quiet temporarily.
That morning, just a few minutes past six, Damien stirred awake to the sharp vibration of his phone against the nightstand. He didn't even bother checking the caller ID before answering he could guess who was calling.
"Tell me you've gotten it."
A low chuckle came from the other end. "Well… let's just say it didn't go exactly how I expected."
Damien sat up, already irritated. "Meaning?"
"One of the girls, the one in college, hit a dead end. Nothing solid, nothing worth chasing further," Vance said,"So I'm thinking we split this you check out the café girl, I'll keep digging into the other student. It'll be faster that way."
There was a brief pause before Damien nodded to himself. "Alright send me the address."
"Already on it and Damien…"
"Yeah?"
"Don't go there acting all intense," Vance added, his tone lighter but pointed. "Just be calm, alright?"
Damien exhaled. "Yeah. Okay."
"Good."
The call ended, and almost immediately, a notification popped up on his screen. He opened it, eyes scanning the address once, then again.
A slight frown formed.
"Hm… this looks familiar."
He leaned back against the headboard, thinking.
"Wait…"
It clicked.
"This is the place Zepher took us to."
His expression darkened slightly.
"That's… interesting."
For a moment, suspicion crept in, subtle but present. Too many coincidences lately, and Damien wasn't someone who believed in them easily.
Still, he swung his legs off the bed to get ready.
Suspicion or not, he wasn't going to sit back and wait.
He got ready quicker than usual, his mind already working through possibilities, questions stacking one after the other. If she was really there, if this was the same girl… then everything was about to get a lot more complicated.
Recently in the Kuiver mansion, it was quiet on the surface but underneath, everyone was moving.
Marina stood by her window when her phone rang. She picked it up immediately.
"I don't have much yet," the voice said, "but unlike before, I found something. He has visited a café… outskirts of the city twice sounds normal but it's weird from him."
Marina's gaze hardened slightly.
"A café?"
"Yes."
She paused, processing it quickly, fitting it into everything she already suspected.
"Keep watching," she said calmly. "And update me on anything new."
"Understood."
She ended the call slowly, her grip on the phone tightening just a little.
"So this is where you've been going…" she murmured.
Across town, Andre sat in the backseat of his car, his attention split between the road ahead and his thoughts. A meeting awaited him, one he couldn't avoid, but even that felt secondary now.
Time was no longer on his side.
He knew his family,he knew what exactly Marina was capable of,he knew how they moved pop. Marina wouldn't stay still. Damien wouldn't stop digging.
And if they reached her first…
He exhaled quietly.
That could complicate everything.
His fingers tapped lightly against his knee as his decision settled.
He would see her again.
This time, not by chance.
Elsewhere, Orabella adjusted the strap of her bag as she stepped into the café, the familiar scent of coffee and baked goods greeting her. Everything looked the same, felt the same… yet she didn't.
Her mind hadn't been quiet since that day.
"Earth to Orabella."
She blinked, turning to see Claire watching her with a knowing look.
"You've been somewhere else since you walked in," Claire said. "Don't tell me you're still thinking about that man."
Orabella hesitated before giving a small shrug. "It's not that simple."
Claire folded her arms. "Then make it simple. Are you considering it?"
Orabella didn't answer immediately.
That alone was enough.
Claire's eyes widened slightly. "Wait… you are?"
"I didn't say that," Orabella replied quickly, though there was no real conviction behind it. "I just… I don't know. It's strange."
"In a bad way?"
"In a confusing way," she admitted. "Like… everything about it feels wrong, but at the same time…"
She trailed off, shaking her head.
Claire studied her for a moment before softening. "Just don't let yourself get pulled into something you don't understand."
Orabella nodded faintly, though her thoughts drifted again, uninvited.
I have a feeling I made the right decision.
Her father's words lingered quietly in her mind.
She inhaled slowly, pushing it aside as she tied her apron.
"I'll be fine," she said, more to herself than anyone else.
The morning picked up gradually, customers coming in one after the other, the usual rhythm settling in. It should have felt normal.
But it didn't.
Not entirely.
The bell above the café door chimed softly.
Orabella turned slightly out of habit, ready with her usual greeting but the words never came.
Across the room, a familiar figure stepped in, his presence immediately drawing attention without trying.
Damien.
He paused just inside, his eyes scanning the space slowly, thoughtfully… until they stopped.
On her.
For a brief second, neither of them moved.
Something flickered in his expression. Recognition, or maybe just curiosity.
Orabella felt it too.
That same strange familiarity.
The same unfinished thought.
And just like that, the distance between questions and answers began to close.