Marvis POV
She returned at 3:07 a.m.
Sweaty. Out of breath. Face flushed, eyes wide but steady. Fierce.
I waited in the shadows of the hall outside the surveillance room. She didn't see me at first.
She sat down hard on the bench. No guards. No noise. Just her, a bottle of water, and the weight of everything she'd just seen.
She didn't cry. Didn't panic. She just sat. And shook.
I stepped forward. "Long night?"
She flinched then sighed when she saw me "You scared the hell out of me."
"You were already in hell," I replied quietly "I just waited for you at the edge."
Her laugh was soft. Surprised. "So poetic for a man who carries death in his pocket."
I shrugged. "Even death needs a reason."
She didn't speak for a moment. Just looked at me.
No fear this time.
Just... curiosity. Real, raw curiosity.
"You followed me, didn't you?"
"No," I said honestly. "I watched."
"And let me walk into that place alone?"
"You wanted to prove yourself."
"I wanted to survive."
"You did both."
Her eyes dropped. Her fingers twisted the cap of her water bottle. "I saw something in there. A photo. A file. It was labeled P-31. It looked like they were tracking someone... with my last name."
That made my pulse shift.
I already knew what she saw.
But hearing it from her lips tentative, uncertain it brought something else to the surface. A protectiveness I didn't know I had.
"They've been watching you for a long time, Melody."
She looked up. "Why?"
"Because your father didn't just win that lawsuit," I said slowly. "He exposed something. Something Lucien buried deep."
She stared at me, unblinking. "You knew my father?"
"No," I answered truthfully. "But I knew the men he went up against."
Her breath caught. "Were you one of them?"
I stepped closer.
Close enough that I could see the confusion in her eyes. The pain she tried to bury.
"I was one of the people who didn't stop it."
Silence stretched between us.
"I should hate you," she whispered.
"I wouldn't blame you if you did."
But she didn't move away. She just looked at me longer… harder like she was trying to read every truth I hadn't said yet.
"Then why help me now?" she asked. "Why give me access? Why protect me?"
I hesitated.
And for once, I didn't lie.
"Because I see fire in you," I said. "The kind that can burn everything down... or light a path. And I've spent too long walking in the dark."
She blinked, stunned.
And then she smiled.
Just a flicker. Barely there.
But real.
"You're not what I expected," she murmured.
"I'm not sure what I am anymore."
And in that moment, with only shadows around us and the rest of the world asleep, I reached out carefully and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek.
She didn't stop me.
Her skin was warm. Alive. Human.
And for the first time in years, I didn't feel like a weapon in a suit.
I felt like a man.
Just a man standing in front of a girl with ghosts in her eyes and steel in her spine.
And I didn't want the moment to end.