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KAI'S POV

It wasn't different, with only her across from me with this feeling of walking right into the memory I had kept locked up tight all these years. There she sat, so quiet-faced, almost uninterested, as though the silence of three endless years chiseled no abyss in my world. Steady tapping fingers upon her laptop continued through the air, while the whirlwind which swept inside my insides found no deafening.

The files lay in front of me, but all was a blur of numbers in front of my eyes as I tried to focus. All that could surface was her,, that woman who turned my life upside down and then vanished into thin air.

I leaned back and felt this tension in my chest unbearable. "We can't keep pretending this is normal," I finally said, breaking the silence.

She gave no heed for a moment, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, then continued as if I hadn't spoken.

"Zara," I went on, my voice crisp. "Are you just going to ignore me or actually tell me why you vanished?”