For several seconds, I simply stared at Sebastian.

Rainwater slid from his dark hair onto the collar of his shirt. His breathing was uneven, as if he had come here in a hurry.

But his expression remained perfectly controlled.

—Can I come in?

Inside my head, his voice was nothing like his face.

“Please say yes.”

My fingers tightened around the door.

Chloe looked from him to me, clearly sensing something was wrong.

—I should probably leave.

—Chloe—

—Nope. Whatever this is, I don’t want to be standing in the middle of it.

She grabbed her bag and slipped past Sebastian.

The moment the elevator doors closed, silence filled the hallway.

Sebastian looked at me.

—You’ve been avoiding me.

“Twenty-three days.”

I blinked.

He had counted.

—I’ve been busy.

“Lie.”

His jaw tightened.

—Did I do something?

I almost laughed.

Did he really not know?

I stepped aside and let him enter.

Sebastian walked into my apartment, then stopped near the sofa.

His eyes landed on the scarf draped over the back of a chair.

The scarf I had bought for him last Christmas.

His thoughts hit me immediately.

“The same color.”

Then:

“Was she the one who gave it to me?”

My heart stumbled.

He turned toward me.

—Emma, I need you to tell me what happened.

I folded my arms.

—Why do you care?

His expression changed slightly.

“What kind of question is that?”

But aloud, he said:

—Because your behavior changed overnight.

—Maybe I finally understood something.

His eyes sharpened.

—What?

I hesitated.

Then I remembered every cruel thought I’d heard outside his office.

A simple administrative employee.

We don’t belong to the same world.

Annoying.

No dignity.

The humiliation returned all at once.

—I understood that I was making someone uncomfortable.

Sebastian froze.

“What?”

—I shouldn’t have visited your office so often.

His face went still.

—Who told you that?

I looked directly into his eyes.

—Does it matter?

“Yes.”

His thought was immediate.

“Because if someone humiliated her in my building, I’ll fire them tomorrow.”

My chest tightened.

—No one told me.

Sebastian took one step closer.

—Then why would you think that?

Because I heard you.

The words almost escaped.

But how could I explain something I didn’t understand myself?

Instead, I said:

—Maybe I finally realized we don’t belong to the same world.

Something flashed across his face.

Shock.

Then suspicion.

“That exact phrase.”

My blood ran cold.

Sebastian stared at me.

—Emma.

I stepped backward.

He followed.

—Where did you hear that?

—I didn’t.

—You just repeated something I—

He stopped.

His face changed.

For the first time since I’d known Sebastian Reed, the man who could sit across from billionaires without blinking looked genuinely unsettled.

I heard his next thought clearly.

“She heard me.”

My breath caught.

Sebastian’s eyes locked onto mine.

“No. Impossible.”

I backed into the edge of the table.

His gaze narrowed.

“Emma, if you can hear this, touch your left earring.”

I stopped breathing.

Slowly, almost without thinking, I raised my hand.

And touched my left earring.

Sebastian went completely pale.

Neither of us spoke.

Then his thought exploded through my mind.

“Oh God.”

I dropped my hand.

—Sebastian—

“How long?”

His lips hadn’t moved.

“How much did she hear?”

I swallowed.

—Enough.

His face lost every trace of color.

He looked away.

And suddenly his thoughts became chaotic.

Not cold.

Not controlled.

Terrified.

“She heard the hallway.”

“She heard me trying to convince myself she was annoying.”

“She heard everything wrong.”

I stared at him.

Trying to convince himself?

—What does that mean?

Sebastian looked back at me sharply.

I realized too late that I’d answered something he hadn’t said aloud.

He closed his eyes.

Then laughed once, without humor.

—So it’s real.

—Apparently.

He dragged a hand over his face.

—And you heard me that day?

I nodded.

His jaw tightened.

—Emma, those thoughts weren’t—

—Don’t.

My voice cracked.

—I don’t need an explanation.

“You deserve one.”

—I heard enough.

“No. You heard the part I use to lie to myself.”

I froze.

Sebastian stepped closer, but stopped before reaching me.

For once, he didn’t hide behind that cold expression.

—Do you know why I rarely looked at you when you came into my office?

I said nothing.

His thoughts answered first.

“Because every time I looked at her, I forgot what I was reading.”

My heart began pounding.

He continued aloud.

—Do you know why I knew you came three times about the same document?

“Because I noticed every time she walked through my door.”

—Why I knew you hadn’t eaten?

“Because I always notice.”

I couldn’t move.

Sebastian exhaled slowly.

—You were never invisible to me, Emma.

My throat tightened.

—Then why did I hear those things?

His expression darkened.

—Because I’ve spent two years telling myself reasons I shouldn’t want you.

Silence.

Two years?

Before I could speak, his phone rang.

Sebastian glanced at the screen.

And every emotion vanished from his face.

But not from his mind.

“Not now.”

He rejected the call.

It rang again immediately.

This time I saw the name.

Victoria Hale.

Sebastian’s former fiancée.

Chloe had mentioned her once.

Beautiful.

Wealthy.

From a family as powerful as Sebastian’s.

Exactly the kind of woman who belonged in his world.

He rejected the second call.

A message appeared.

I didn’t mean to read it.

But the preview was impossible to miss.

“Your grandfather moved the engagement announcement to tomorrow. Call me before Emma finds out.”

My stomach dropped.

Sebastian snatched up the phone.

Too late.

I had already seen it.

—Engagement?

His face hardened.

—Emma, it’s not what you think.

I laughed bitterly.

—Of course.

I moved toward the door.

But Sebastian caught my wrist gently.

And then I heard the thought he clearly never intended anyone to know.

“If she walks away now, I’ll cancel the merger, defy my grandfather, and burn every plan they made for my future.”

I slowly turned toward him.

Sebastian stared at me.

And for the first time, I understood the real danger of hearing his thoughts.

It wasn’t discovering that Sebastian Reed hated me.

It was discovering that he might have been hiding something far more complicated.

Then his phone lit up again.

This time the message wasn’t from Victoria.

It was from his grandfather.

“Bring Emma Bennett to me tomorrow. There are things about her family she deserves to know.”

I looked at Sebastian.

His thoughts suddenly went completely silent.

And somehow, that frightened me more than anything I had heard before.
:::