There was something about silence that could scream louder than words.
Sasha sat at her desk, her screen glowing dimly as unread emails blinked in the corner. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, but she hadn't typed a single coherent sentence in the last twenty minutes. Her mind had been somewhere else,everywhere else, really. On him.
Kian.
Three days of silence.
Three days since that night.
Three days of pretending like it hadn't happened,like they hadn't crossed the line in the heat of a messy, forbidden night that still lingered in her skin.He didn't look at her anymore. Didn't speak unless necessary. In meetings, his eyes would skim right over her, like she was invisible.Sasha bit the inside of her cheek. Was it regret? Was it guilt? Or worse… was it indifference?She hated herself for hoping he'd reach out. Hated herself for checking her phone every hour, for replaying that night in her mind, for still craving a man who clearly wanted distance.
Then her phone vibrated.
She snatched it up quickly, heart leaping. But the name on the screen wasn't the one she was expecting.
*Elias.*
She blinked. Elias. Her ex. The man who broke her heart with a smile and walked away as though she was a phase.
"Hey stranger. I'm back in town. Coffee?"
Her chest tightened. Why now?
She leaned back in her chair, rereading the message. It felt oddly timed,like the universe knew how fragile she was right now and decided to play with her.
For a moment, she considered deleting it. Ignoring him. But something held her back. Not because she wanted Elias again,God, no. But maybe she just wanted to feel something that wasn't confusion and silence.
Across the room, Kian's office door opened.
Her eyes snapped up on instinct.
There he was—dark suit, sharp jaw, unreadable expression. He walked past her desk without a single glance. Not even a flicker of acknowledgement. Her stomach twisted.
Screw this.
She picked up her phone and replied.
"Sure. Tomorrow?"
Almost immediately, the dots appeared.
"Perfect. Usual place?"
She nodded to herself and typed:
"Yeah. 4pm."
Just then, her desk phone rang. She jumped.
"Sasha, boardroom. Strategy review. Kian wants you present."
The irony.
She stood, smoothed her blouse, and grabbed her notebook. As she walked toward the boardroom, her heart beat in a strange rhythm,half for the ex who suddenly reappeared, and half for the man whose silence was slowly killing her.
The meeting dragged. Kian barely looked at her. His voice was cool, distant. Every suggestion she made was met with a curt nod or a non-committal hum. She felt like a ghost in her own skin.
Afterward, she stayed behind to pack up the notes. Everyone filtered out except Kian, who lingered at the end of the table, adjusting his files.
She cleared her throat, her voice small. "Kian—"
He didn't look up.
"We need to talk," she said more firmly.
His jaw tensed. "There's nothing to talk about."
Sasha walked around the table, stopping just a few feet from him. "You've been avoiding me."
He finally looked at her—those eyes that once made her knees weak now unreadable. "It was a mistake, Sasha. One we can't afford to repeat."
Her stomach dropped.
He said it like it meant nothing. Like *she* meant nothing.
"You think I don't know that?" she whispered. "I'm not asking for promises. But pretending like I don't exist? That's cruel."
Kian didn't speak. He just stared at her for a long moment, then said softly, "Don't make this harder than it is."
Sasha stepped back, nodding slowly. "Right. Got it."
The next day came quicker than she expected. And as she sat across from Elias in the dimly lit café, sipping her cappuccino, she wondered why she even said yes.
Elias looked the same—charming, confident, dressed in a casual button-down with that lazy grin that used to undo her. But now… it didn't.
"So," he said, leaning forward, "what's new?"
Sasha smiled politely. "Work's been busy."
"Still working with the Kian Lema Group?"
She hesitated. "Yeah."
Elias raised a brow. "I've heard a lot about your boss. Sharp guy."
She didn't answer. Didn't want to.
He chuckled. "You always were the mysterious type."
They talked. About old times. Travel. Projects. He tried to flirt once or twice, but she kept it neutral. The truth was, even if Elias had broken her once, he no longer held that power.
But someone else did.
And she hated it.
She excused herself after an hour, claiming a meeting. As she walked out of the café, her chest felt tight. She wasn't heartbroken over Elias. She was hollowed out by Kian.
That night, as she curled in bed, she thought about texting Kian.
But what would she say?
So instead, she wrote a message she never sent:
"You kissed me like I mattered. Touched me like I belonged to you. Then left me like a secret. Why?"
She stared at the message for a long time before deleting it.
Outside, the city was quiet. But inside her chest, the silence was deafening.