Chapter 7. Nick

Nick didn’t put down the phone immediately. The room was dark, with only the city light piercing through the blinds in thin lines that fell across the wall like a grid. He stood motionless, staring out the window, but he wasn’t seeing the city. He was seeing her. Not on a screen. Not in a video. Alive.

Her silence angered him more than any words ever could. Not because it looked guilty — no. Because it was… dignified. She didn’t beg. She didn’t explain. She didn’t break the way he expected.

And that was a mistake.

You should have screamed, he thought.
You should have defended yourself.

But instead, she stood — looking through everyone, as if he were not a judge, but just another fragment of that night.

Adam.

The name sliced through his consciousness. His voice. His confidence. His right to be there. Nick clenched his jaw. He knew this type of man. Calm. Smart. Quiet. The kind who doesn’t argue — they just exist. And that was dangerous.

You have no right to protect her, Nick thought.
This is not your role.

And why did it hit him so hard? He turned to the desk and switched on the lamp. A folder with the case lay open. Photos. Reports. All cold. Logical. Without emotion.

Then — her face on a freeze-frame. He stopped.

It’s just fatigue, he told himself. Projection. Trauma. Guilt searching for a shape.

But his body didn’t obey.

It wasn’t Adam standing between him and the truth that enraged him. It was Irene allowing it. That she trusted someone else.

“Damn,” he whispered, snapping the folder shut.

He remembered her differently. In the hospital. The light was too bright, the antiseptic smell cutting into the lungs. She slept. Helpless. Alive. That was the first time he felt it. Not hatred. Not revenge. Need. Understanding. Touching. Breaking — or saving.

He hated himself for it. Because every time he looked at her, the question changed. Not “What did you do?” but “Who are you?”

And that was the worst.

Nick went back to the window. Keep your distance, he ordered himself. She was part of the case.

But deep down, he already knew — this case had long ceased to be just a case. And Adam had felt it. That’s why he intervened. That’s why he had angered him so much.

Nick smiled without joy.

“Careful, Irene,” he whispered into the darkness. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.”

For the first time in a long while, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to break her. Or save her from himself.