Chapter 104 Chapter 104
My phone vibrated, and I checked the notification. One notification turned into five. Then, at ten, Alina was sending me confirmation from the wedding planner, the florist, and the venue. First it was Alina, then Shea, then Michelle, then Andrew, Damon, and Aunt Rosetta. I groaned out loud. These people were going to fry my brain.
I loved Alina. I really did. She was warm, protective, and sharp when she needed to be. But when she latched onto something, she latched on hard. The wedding had become her mission, and I was the project.
I opened her message.
Alina: Good morning, sweetheart. I hope you slept well. I’ll come by later with fabric samples. Rest until then.
Fabric samples. I typed back,
Tessa: Good morning. I slept okay. Thank you.
I took a sip of coffee and opened my laptop. Just a quick look, I told myself. Work first. Normal things. Grounding things. I logged into the Rhyland Global system and went straight to analytics. Traffic looked fine at first glance. Brand terms were steady. Campaigns were holding Then I narrowed the filter. Personal names, and my stomach dipped.
The spike from yesterday hadn’t gone down. It had grown; it was Still small, it was quiet for now, but it was consistent. That was the part that bothered me. Random spikes dropped fast. Planned ones didn’t. I clicked through related terms, mapping patterns automatically, the way my brain always did. Zaiel’s name My name.
My father's name, I sucked in a slow breath. Dad.
There was nothing direct yet. No articles. No posts. Just searches. Curiosity. Someone planting seeds and waiting to see what grew. I leaned back in my chair and stared at the screen. This was my field. I knew how this worked. I also knew how ugly it could get if left alone. Behind me, the bedroom door opened.
“You were up early,” Zaiel said. He came over to me and kissed my head.
He walked into the kitchen and made a coffee; he was in sweatpants, and his hair was a mess.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I said. He walked over and leaned against the counter across from me, watching my face instead of the screen. “You were working; you need to relax,” he said.
“Just checking,” I said.
“How were you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m okay, still tired.” He reached out and brushed his thumb under my eye. “You didn’t rest enough,” he said.
“I know.”
We stood there quietly for a moment. I closed the laptop and looked at him.
“Your mom is coming later,” I said.
A corner of his mouth lifted. “You sound thrilled.”
“I am,” I said, smiling. “I just didn’t expect fabric samples this soon.”
“She moves fast,” he said.
“She really does.”
He poured himself coffee and leaned against the island, watching me. “We’ll start prepping the move too. I had someone take measurements at the house,” he said, and that made it real in a new way.
“I still can’t believe you bought it already.”
He shrugged. “You liked it.”
“I loved it,” I said. “And Dad…”
“I know,” he said.
The thought of Dad standing in that garden, hands in the dirt, smiling the way he only did when he was growing something, made my chest ache in a good way.
“I’ll need to plan around work; moving takes time.”
“I’ll make time. You work for me, remember, and you’re my wife,” he said.
I looked at him. “That’s not what I meant.”
He didn’t answer right away.
“I don’t want special treatment,” I added. “At work. I just want it to stay clean.”
He studied me for a long second, then nodded. “It will.”
An hour later Alina arrived with two garment bags, a box of pastries, and the energy of someone who had been planning this moment since the day Zaiel was born.
“Oh, my poor girl,” she said the second she saw me. “You should still be in bed.”
“I was,” I lied.
She kissed my cheek and handed Zaiel the bags. “Put those in the bedroom.”
He obeyed without a word. She took my hands and led me to the couch. “We’ll keep it light today. Just ideas.” She said,
Her ideas turned into lace samples, color palettes, venue sketches, and a conversation about guest lists that somehow lasted an hour. I smiled. I nodded and listened. Hannah showed up quietly, which was strange. She was standing near the doorway like she wasn’t sure if she was interrupting. She gave me a small smile.
“You okay?” she asked later when Alina was distracted.
“I was,” I said honestly. “Just overwhelmed.”
She nodded. “That tracks.”
She didn’t pry, and she seemed more calmed down; maybe what happened with Avani opened her eyes. By the time Alina left, promising to come back tomorrow, my head was buzzing. Zaiel ordered lunch for us, but I barely touched it. In the afternoon, I logged back into work. The search activity had increased again. Not by much, but enough to confirm it wasn’t random.
I started documenting the patterns quietly, saving snapshots, timelines, and potential counter-strategies. I didn’t tell Zaiel yet. I needed to be sure. This was my job; even though it was his company, it was still my job. By evening, exhaustion hit me hard. Not just physical but emotional too, and it was the kind that sank into your bones.
Zaiel sat watching me from the other side of the couch.
“Tessa, please don't push yourself," he said.
“I’m fine,” I said automatically.
He didn’t argue; he rarely did when he thought arguing would fail. He just moved closer and pulled me into his side. I rested my head on his shoulder. Everything was moving forward whether I was ready or not. And somewhere beneath it all, I could feel something else starting to shift; maybe this was the big change.
I didn’t expect packing to feel emotional. It was just boxes. Just clothes. Just things. But every time I folded something and put it away, it felt like I was closing a small chapter without meaning to.
I was sitting on the bedroom floor with three open suitcases and zero organization. My system was basically touch it and decide its fate, which wasn’t really a system. The apartment looked different already. Not empty, but no longer permanent. Like it knew we were leaving.
Zaiel was on a call in his office, voice low and steady through the half-closed door. Numbers. Names. Instructions. He sounded like he always did—calm enough to scare people. I rolled up one of his shirts and tossed it into the keep pile. It still smelled like him. I kept it without thinking.
My phone vibrated; I checked, and it was Dad. He was stuck at the Rhyland manor with Anthony and Zaiel’s uncles. I smiled and answered on speaker. “Hey.”
“Morning, bug, I heard we’re moving into a castle,” he said.
I laughed. “It’s not a castle.”
“Does it have land?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then it’s a castle,” he said.
I could hear talking in the background.
“Are you excited?” he asked.
“I was. Now I’m nervous,” I said quietly.