Page 64 of Rose

Savior closed the message, a small weight lifting from his chest. Ahzii might have been dodging him, but at least Sin came through on business.

It wasn’t enough to quiet the worry gnawing at him, but it gave him something to focus on until she decided to give him answers.

“Everything straight?” Sarai asked just as Chris walked in with his food.

Savior pushed off the wall, forcing his expression blank.

He couldn’t talk about this part with her.

She didn’t know about the Lazarus case, and if she did, she’d throw herself into helping.

This wasn’t the kind of fight she could walk away from.

One woman he loved was already slipping through his fingers.

He wasn’t about to risk losing his sister too.

“I need to head out. Ahzii’s at her mother’s house, and I know her ass hasn’t eaten all day,” Savior said, trying to mask the heaviness sitting in his chest.

He left Gold, slid into his car, and fired up the engine. His phone dinged, and for the first time all day, hope kicked in hard enough to make his pulse race.

Allure: Hey baby. I ’ m staying the night with my mother tonight. I promise I ’ m going to explain everything when I get home. I just need more space, so please don ’ t come see me. I love you.

The words hit him like a knife twisting slow. She was keeping him out. Avoiding him. Asking for space when he was the one person who’d burn the world down to keep her safe.

Why?

He didn’t think, he just hit call, needing to hear her voice, to know for damn sure she was okay. It rang, and rang… and went dead.

His jaw flexed, his knuckles turned white, and the anger hit him before the hurt could swallow him whole. He punched the steering wheel, hard. Once. Twice. Again. The leather groaned under the force, but it didn’t release the pressure building in his chest.

He wanted to go to her. Kick in the door if he had to. But pushing too hard now could break whatever fragile thread was holding her together, and he refused to be the reason she unraveled .

So he forced himself to turn the wheel and head for the warehouse instead, even though every part of him screamed to find her.

This wasn’t the time to be Khaos. This was the time to be Savior. Her Savior.

Even if it killed him to wait, he’d give her the space she was asking for and pray she’d come back with the truth like she promised. Until then, the ache in his chest wasn’t going anywhere. Neither was the worry.

???

Ahzii stepped into the beach house, its grand size and secluded location making it feel like its own world. The air was rich with the sound of waves crashing against the shore, the occasional cry of seabirds breaking the heavy quiet. William had told her to meet him here.

It was beautiful—spotless, modern, yet lived in—like someone had made it a home. Maybe this was where he’d been hiding for the last year.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Savior .

Guilt slammed into her chest. She’d told him she was at her mother’s house, but here she was, standing in the past, waiting for a man she once loved. She loved Savior now, she couldn’t deny that, but there was still a part of her heart that would always belong to William. And she needed answers.

She declined the call.

“This place is beautiful, right?”

The voice came from across the living room. She looked up, and her heart lurched so hard it almost hurt.

William. In the flesh.

Gone was the suit from the night before; he wore black sweats, a white T-shirt, and slides. His locs, just as long as she remembered, were pulled low behind his head. A small burn scar marred one cheek, faint but there. More covered his hands. Something in him felt… different. Changed.

A year. She had cried, screamed, mourned him. She had buried the memory of his laugh in the same grave as their daughter. And now—he was standing here. Alive. Breathing.

“Hey, Beautiful.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks before she could stop them. She reached up, cupping his face like she had to make sure he was real, like last night hadn’t already confirmed it.

“You’re really alive?” Her voice cracked under the weight of it all.

“Yes, baby. It’s me.” He kissed her forehead, and for a split second she melted, but even his touch felt different.

She smiled through it anyway. She was happy he was alive. But the questions in her chest were louder than the waves outside.

Then he kissed her—deeply—and the tears kept falling.

And in the middle of it, Savior’s face flashed in her mind. Her heart slammed hard against her ribs.

“I can’t…” she stumbled over the words. “I’m sorry, but I’m with someone else now, Will.”

His expression darkened .

Yes, William was alive. But she couldn’t lie to herself about what she felt for Savior. Her heart was being torn in two—between the man she thought she’d buried and the man who had loved her through every grief, broken wall, and silent night.

Everything was moving too fast.

“Will, what is going on? I thought you died… I saw you take your last breath.” The words tumbled from Ahzii’s mouth in a rush, her voice breaking, every thought from that night crashing out of her at once.

William’s hands closed around her waist like he could ground her with his touch. But it didn’t work. Not anymore. That part of her belonged to someone else now, even if she couldn’t say it out loud.

“Sit down, and I’ll explain everything.”

Her legs felt heavy, but she sank into the sectional, eyes locked on him.

“You want some tea? Coffee? Water?” he asked gently.

She shook her head. “I don’t want tea, Will. I want answers. I thought you were dead for an entire year. I grieved. I cried every damn night, praying to have you back in my arms again—praying to have our daughter back. And you’ve been alive this whole time?”

Her voice cracked, but the hurt, anger, and confusion in it were razor-sharp. The last year of her life… it felt like a cruel lie. And she had no idea that the man she’d loved, the man she’d married, was about to become the biggest lie of all.

“I know you’re confused. And probably mad at me.” His tone softened as he sat next to her.

“Then explain.” She swiped at the tears still falling.

His eyes didn’t waver. “Ahzii… that man you fell in love with is dangerous. And he’s the reason for all of this.”

Her chest went still. “What?”

William pulled a file from beside him and handed it over.

She opened it—just enough to see the crime scene photos—and her stomach lurched. The images from that night slammed into her, hot and suffocating. The fire. The screams. The smell of smoke and blood. She slammed the file shut.

“I’m not looking at this. Just tell me. I’m so tired of all these secrets.”

“Beautiful, Savior and his family are responsible for that night. The two men who came into our home… they were his men. His blood.”

Her heart plummeted as she shook her head. No. Not him . Not the man who had pulled her from the ashes. Not the man who had loved her back to life.

“No… no. It can’t be. Not him.”

William’s jaw tightened. He slid a photo from the file and held it up. “This is one of the men who was in the house that night. He killed himself not long after the incident.”

That was a lie. Wild hadn’t killed himself—William had found him and put a bullet in his skull—but she didn’t need to know that. The man’s face was bare in the photo. No mask. Just lifeless eyes and a gunshot wound to the head.

Her breath caught. “Oh my God…”

“And this,” William continued, pulling out another photo, “is him with Savior. They knew each other. ”

Her heart dropped again, but still… she couldn’t just accept it. “That doesn’t mean anything, Will. Savior didn’t—”

“It was him!” William’s voice rose before a harsh cough ripped through his chest.

When he caught his breath, his gaze burned into hers.

“He caused all of this, Ahzii. The fire that burned our home to the ground. The scars we carry. The fact that our baby girl is gone. Savior did this. And when he found you, it wasn’t fate.

It wasn’t love. He came back to finish the job. Looks like he just got distracted.”

Her pulse thundered in her ears. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. The man she’d given her heart to—the man who’d been her lifeline—was being painted as the reason for all her pain.

No. She didn’t want to believe it. But the photos… the pieces… they fit.

And just like that, her heart splintered all over again, jagged edges cutting her from the inside out.

“I know it’s hard, baby. I know everything feels like it’s spinning right now. But all the answers you need… they’re in that file.”

William’s voice was steady as he pushed it toward her again.

Ahzii stared at it, her stomach twisting, bile rising. Still, her fingers reached for it. The second she opened it, the air was ripped from her lungs.

Images. Dozens of them. Burned walls. Charred remains. Shattered glass and broken lives. Her life. Their life. And in the middle of it—Savior.

He wasn’t a shadow in the background. He was there, plain as day, talking to the men who had broken into their home that night.

A sob tore through her before she could stop it. Tears blurred the photos until they smeared into nothing but black and red.

“I refuse to lose you again, Beautiful,” William said, his hand gripping hers with a force that almost hurt.

“I refuse to let him take everything away from us again. I’ve been in hiding, planning for this moment, digging for answers.

And when I saw you smiling with the man who caused all of this… I knew I had to put an end to it.”

Her mind was spinning, replaying it all on an endless loop—the grief she’d drowned in after losing William and Willow, the way Savior had walked into her life and touched parts of her heart she thought were dead, the quiet moments, the love she swore was real… and now this.

Her voice cracked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know, William. I swear to God, I didn’t know.”