Chapter 7 - The Man Who Protected Her Heart
Six months later, Khloe stood on the balcony of Varga International’s new Seattle headquarters.
The city looked different.
Or maybe she was different.
Alexander joined her.
“You’re quiet.”
She smiled.
“I’m thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
She laughed.
A real laugh.
The first one he had heard from her.
He looked at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“No.”
She smiled.
“You’re still terrible at pretending not to care.”
Alexander looked away.
“I don’t pretend.”
“Yes, you do.”
A pause.
Then he admitted:
“Maybe.”
The man who terrified entire industries was standing beside her, unable to hide a simple emotion.
Khloe looked at him.
“Do you regret helping me that night?”
Alexander answered immediately.
“No.”
“Even though my name caused problems?”
“No.”
“Even though I hid under your table?”
A small smile appeared.
“Especially because of that.”
She laughed.
Then became serious.
“Why did you really help me?”
Alexander looked at the city.
“Because someone once helped me when I had nowhere to go.”
Khloe waited.
But he didn’t explain.
And she respected that.
Some wounds needed time.
She reached for his hand.
The same hand she grabbed that night beneath the restaurant table.
Only this time...
she wasn’t afraid.
Alexander looked at their hands.
“You know.”
“What?”
“You were never someone who needed saving.”
Khloe smiled.
“And you?”
He looked at her.
“What about me?”
She squeezed his hand.
“Maybe you were.”
For the first time in years, Alexander Varga smiled without hiding it.
The world knew him as a powerful man.
A dangerous man.
A man nobody dared challenge.
But Khloe knew the truth.
Behind the reputation was someone who had spent his life protecting everyone except himself.
Until one rainy night...
when a woman hiding beneath his table changed everything.
And the man everyone feared finally found something he never thought he would have.
Not power.
May you like
Not control.
Peace.
