Bound By A Broken Night novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43

I wandered through the mall, my gaze drifting from one restaurant to the next, barely registering the noise and movement around me. Then I stopped short.

A familiar sign caught my eye.

“Oh,” I breathed, a small smile tugging at my lips. “You’re still here.”

I found myself walking toward it without thinking.

It was the restaurant my professor had taken me to on her birthday all those years ago the first truly elegant place I had ever eaten in. Back then, I’d sat stiff and wide–eyed, afraid to touch anything, afraid of not belonging. It had become a quiet dream to return someday, on my own

terms.

But that someday never came.

Not until now–after I had already left Bay City behind.

I lingered there for a moment, studying the entrance.

After years of dining in far more elegant establishments, this place should have paled in comparison and objectively, it did. The décor was modest by my current standards, the refinement restrained. Yet the memory it carried was immense. Back then, it had felt impossibly grand, a world I could only step into as a server, never as a guest. The feeling of its inaccessibility had been overwhelming, almost reverent.

Time had changed my circumstances, but the imprint of that first experience remained.

“Welcome, Madame. Table for how many?” the receptionist asked, her smile warm and practiced.

“Just one, please,” I replied, lifting a finger lightly.

“This way, please.”

I followed her through the quiet hum of the restaurant, my steps unhurried. Relief washed over me when she led me toward a table by the glass wall. Beyond it, the lagoon stretched out in a calm sweep of blue and silver, the light dancing softly across its surface.

It was secluded. Peaceful. Exactly what I needed.

As I took my seat, I felt something in me ease–just a fraction. Since I’d set foot back in Bay City again, I allowed myself a moment of stillness, wrapped in the quiet comfort of familiarity, watching the water as if it could steady the parts of me that were still unease.

However, a strange sensation crept over me, subtle yet undeniable, as if the air itself had shifted. Even the soft hum of the restaurant seemed to pause, suspended in an unnatural stillness that made my skin prickle.

I lifted my gaze and slowly scanned the room. Nothing appeared out of place.

Chapter 43

+25 BONUS

Patrons remained absorbed in their meals, cutlery clinking softly against porcelain, voices kept low and polite. Near the far end, a large group occupied a private room, their silhouettes visible through the glass partition.

They were dressed in immaculate suits and tailored dresses, heads bent together in intense discussion. The tension in their postures suggested a high–stakes business meeting–measured gestures, serious expressions, the kind of gathering where every word carried weight.

Everything looked perfectly ordinary. And yet the unease lingered.

I stayed still, my posture composed, even as something inside me sharpened an old instinct stirring, alert to a presence I hadn’t yet seen but already felt.

Then my gaze shifted inside the private room. I froze.

For a heartbeat, I forgot how to breathe. My chest tightened so abruptly it felt as though invisible fingers had closed around my lungs. Among all the faces in the restaurant, a single pair of eyes locked onto mine–unyielding, penetrating.

The last person I was prepared to see today.

My heart thundered violently against my ribs. With every ounce of resolve I had left, I tore my gaze away and flicked it toward the exit, already calculating how fast I could leave.

Too late.

My body refused to obey. I felt rooted to the spot, as if the floor itself had claimed me. And then, to my quiet horror, he rose from his seat.

The man stepped out of the private room, his presence cutting through the restaurant with an ease that hadn’t diminished in six years.

Each step toward me felt deliberate, inevitable. I watched him approach, my pulse roaring in my ears, until he stopped beside my table.

“You’re back.”

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