Chapter 1
UNSPOKEN love
Chapter One — When Fate Brought Her Back
The room fell silent the moment Aariz Shah walked in.
Nobody had asked for silence.
Nobody needed to.
His presence was enough.
At twenty-four, Aariz had mastered the art of making people uncomfortable without saying a word.
Dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit, he walked toward the head of the table with slow, confident steps. His dark eyes were cold, his expression unreadable, and there was something about him that made people instinctively lower their voices.
“Sir,” one of the men stood immediately.
Aariz stopped.
“Sit.”
One word.
The man immediately sat down.
Aariz placed a file on the table and opened it.
“I gave you three days.”
The man swallowed.
“Sir, I—”
“Three.”
Aariz slowly lifted his eyes.
“Days.”
Silence.
“You had three days to fix the mistake you made.”
“I tried, sir. I—”
“You failed.”
His voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
Somehow, his calmness was more intimidating than anger.
Aariz closed the file.
“Fix it by tomorrow.”
The man hesitated.
“And if I can’t?”
Aariz leaned back in his chair.
His eyes never left the man’s face.
“Then I’ll find someone who can.”
Nobody dared to speak after that.
The meeting ended within minutes.
One by one, the men left the room.
Aariz remained seated.
Alone.
He hated unnecessary conversations.
He hated excuses.
He hated people who expected explanations.
And feelings?
Feelings were worse.
They were messy.
Unpredictable.
Weak.
At least, that was what he had taught himself to believe.
His phone suddenly vibrated against the table.
Unknown Number.
He ignored it.
It rang again.
His jaw tightened before he finally answered.
“Hello?”
“Is this Mr. Aariz Shah?”
A girl’s voice.
Calm.
Clear.
And slightly annoyed.
“Yes.”
“Your car is blocking the entrance.”
Aariz frowned.
“What?”
“The black Mercedes.”
Aariz leaned back in his chair.
“I know which car is mine.”
There was a brief silence.
“Then you also know it’s blocking the entire gate.”
Aariz glanced toward the window.
“Move around it.”
“I would if your car wasn’t blocking the way.”
He stared at his phone.
Nobody talked to him like that.
Not like this.
“Who are you?”
“Someone trying to leave the building.”
Aariz’s lips almost curved into a smile.
Almost.
“And you thought calling me was a good idea?”
“I thought asking you to move your car was a better idea than scratching it.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“You wouldn’t.”
A pause.
Then—
“Try me.”
The call ended.
Aariz stared at the screen.
For a few seconds, he said nothing.
Then, unexpectedly, a quiet laugh escaped him.
He couldn’t remember the last time someone had spoken to him like that.
He stood and walked toward the window.
Outside, the rain had grown heavier, blurring the city lights into golden shadows.
Then—
something strange happened.
That voice.
There was something about it.
Something painfully familiar.
A memory surfaced.
Faint.
Buried.
Almost forgotten.
A hospital room.
White walls.
The sharp smell of medicine.
A little boy sitting alone on a hospital bed.
His small hands gripping the blanket.
His eyes fixed on the door.
Waiting.
Waiting for someone who had already decided to leave.
His mother.
And then...
another child.
A little girl standing near his bed.
She had tears in her own eyes.
She had lost someone that day too.
Yet somehow, she had still found the strength to comfort him.
Aariz closed his eyes.
He could hear her voice.
Soft.
Innocent.
Certain.
“Don’t cry. You’ll be okay.”
His eyes opened.
The memory disappeared.
But the words remained.
They had remained for years.
Aariz looked down at his phone.
His expression had completely changed.
For the first time that evening, the coldness in his eyes disappeared.
He didn’t remember her face.
He didn’t remember her name.
But he remembered her voice.
He remembered the words that had stayed with him for sixteen years.
And somewhere deep inside the man he had become, that lonely little boy still remembered the first person who had ever made him feel like he wasn’t alone.
Aariz’s fingers tightened around the phone.
Who were you?
He didn’t know why he was thinking about her after all these years.
He didn’t know why a stranger’s voice had brought back a memory he had buried so deeply.
And he certainly didn’t know that the girl he had just spoken to—
was the same girl from that hospital.
The same girl who had once told a broken little boy that he would be okay.
Aariz stared out at the rain.
He had no idea that fate had just returned the one person he had spent years trying to forget.
He had forgotten her face.
But his heart had never forgotten her.
And this time...
he wasn’t going to let her walk away so easily.
