No.
No, he couldn’t take her.
Not like this.
Not after three weeks of breathing her laughter, her silence, her fragile trust into something that finally felt like purpose.
She wasn’t just a child I cared for.
She was the reason I had started waking up without emptiness.
The reason my world had started making sense again.
And now he was pulling it away like it had never existed.
I moved before I could think.
“Mr. Rafael,” I said quickly, forcing courage into my voice as I stepped forward.
My hand reached out, searching blindly through the space I remembered.
Chair. Edge.
And then—
Tess
I found her instantly and held on.
“Please don’t take her from me,” I said, voice breaking despite my effort to control it. “She’s already scared. She trusts me. You can’t just remove her from—”
My throat tightened.
“She needs me.”
“Take a step back, Loretta,” his voice snapped suddenly, sharp as a blade. “Or I will unleash hell you are not prepared to survive.”
My grip on Zara’s hand tightened unconsciously.
Tears burned behind my eyes, invisible but heavy enough to change the way my voice carried.
I couldn’t let go.
Not even if my hands shook.
“Mr. Rafael—please,” I whispered, my voice breaking completely. “I’ll do anything. Anything at all, just don’t take her from me.”
My throat tightened painfully.
“I wouldn’t survive that kind of heartbreak,” I added, barely above a breath. “And I don’t think she would either.”
The words were not pride anymore.
Only desperation.
And then—
A beat of silence too heavy to breathe through.
