Chapter 32
Dafa's POV: Am I bewitched?
There she was again.
My fiancee.
Alayna stood alone at the bus stop, framed by the restless wind and her own rising panic. Her brow was tightly knit. She kept checking her phone, her gaze flicking toward the road as if sheer willpower might summon a bus. She chewed her lip, an anxious habit she hadn't learned to hide.
My first impulse to stop was pure instinct, the reflex of a public servant trained to act. That's what I told myself, anyway. But the truth struck harder and far more personally:
She was mine to protect.
Yet even as that thought surfaced, a thin blade of hesitation slid through me. Our engagement wasn't born from romance, but it was a strategic alliance. Her plan, my practicality. Was her distress genuine… or was it a performance?
I exhaled quietly, annoyed at my own skepticism. Then I pulled over.
