Free Web NovelChapter 133: I Owe You So Much
"Zach... how did you know I was at the police station?" Sienna asked softly.
Sienna watched him carefully. She clearly remembered she had never called him.
And unless the universe had officially hired Zachary Sterling as her personal disaster detector, there was no logical explanation for how he found out she was at the police station.
Zachary did not answer her question immediately. Instead, his eyes lowered slightly, lingering on her lips for only a brief moment. Somehow, that tiny action was enough to make her heart beat harder than before.
The room suddenly felt too quiet.
Before she could gather herself and ask again, he had already moved from his seat. His movements remained calm and effortless as always. He reached for the glass of water and brought it toward her.
"Drink this first."
Only then did Sienna realize how thirsty she actually was. Her throat felt dry and sore from stress, exhaustion, and too many emotions crashing into her all at once. Her fingers trembled faintly as she accepted the glass from him.
Still, the moment the cool water touched her lips, she drank without hesitation. The coldness soothed her throat almost instantly.
Before she could lean over to place the empty glass back onto the bedside table, Zachary had already taken it from her hand.
Her eyes followed him quietly as he settled back into the chair beside the bed.
"Thank you, Zach..." she said softly.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
Then his worried gaze returned to her. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Sienna caught it immediately. It appeared only for a second, gone almost as quickly as it came, hidden again beneath his usual calm expression. But she had seen it.
And strangely... seeing genuine worry on Zachary’s face affected her more than she expected.
"Sorry," Zachary said after a moment, his voice low and calm. "I read your text so late."
Sienna lowered her gaze slightly. She had guessed as much; he must have been busy. A man like Zachary Sterling always had a hundred things going on around him. Business meetings, flights, calls, and work.
"When I read it," he continued, his tone growing more serious, "I called you immediately. But you didn’t answer."
She listened quietly.
"I texted you, too. I asked you to call me back, but you didn’t."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"From that moment, I started getting worried because you never ignored my messages."
Hearing him say it so naturally, as if her silence had truly unsettled him, made warmth slowly spread through her heart.
’You never ignored my messages...’ She repeated his sentence in her mind.
"So I asked Logan to check on you at your office."
His expression hardened slightly.
"But what he found... shocked me and frightened me."
His voice turned colder this time.
"You were detained by the police."
The memory hit her instantly... The police put handcuffs on her hands. Benjamin’s staff cast accusing looks toward her. And the humiliation of being treated like a criminal while knowing she had done nothing wrong.
Her hands slowly clenched together in her lap. She wanted to curse at Benjamin, but somehow she stayed quiet and waited for him to continue.
Zachary drew a slow breath before speaking again. "So I sent my legal team and my people to locate you and to do whatever it takes to help you."
Sienna frowned slightly as she remembered her conversation with Benjamin’s lawyer, who said there was no evidence to clear her name.
"In the process of helping you, they found damning evidence that could send Benjamin Foster to prison!"
Shock spread across her face. She stared at him, struggling to process what he had just said. She clearly remembered that the CCTV was broken.
That single fact had crushed nearly every bit of hope she had left. Without the footage, her situation had looked hopeless. Benjamin could twist the story however he wanted, and she had no way to prove otherwise.
"Zach, are you sure?" she asked, her voice trembling. "I thought the CCTV device was broken?"
Zachary nodded calmly.
"Not broken, but they deleted it."
There was not the slightest hesitation in his answer.
"But, my people can retrieve CCTV footage even if it has been deleted."
Silence filled the room as Sienna stared at him. For several seconds, she could not speak. At that moment, she felt happy, but she was also worried she might have heard it wrong.
Then, slowly, the meaning of his words settled inside her mind.
’Oh, God! I’m safe. Everything will be all right. That bastard Benjamin won’t hurt me or take advantage of me...’
A small warm smile bloomed on her lips as she looked at him.
"Zach..." Her voice softened into almost a whisper.
Warmth gathered behind her eyes before she could stop it. Unfortunately, her emotions had completely ignored her opinion.
"Zach... you did so much for me. I owe you so much..."
Her vision blurred.
"And... I don’t know how to repay you—"
She could not finish her words. The tears slipped down despite her efforts to hold them back.
Embarrassed, she lowered her head quickly, trying to hide her face from him.
But it was too late. A white handkerchief appeared in front of her.
Sienna looked at it for a brief second before accepting it quietly.
She wiped away the tears from her cheeks while trying to steady her emotions.
"No need to rush." His calm voice sounded closer this time.
She slowly lifted her head.
The moment their eyes met, her breathing faltered slightly. She suddenly felt the world around her move in slow motion.
His gaze remained fixed on hers.
Her heartbeat, however, had clearly forgotten how to behave properly. She became painfully aware of how close they were. She could clearly see his face and felt his warm breath brushing against her skin.
"You don’t owe me anything. But if you insist otherwise, it’s yours to decide what and when, and you have your whole lifetime to decide," he whispered softly.
A smile appeared on his lips. Not the calm, unreadable expression she usually saw, but an actual, rare, and warm smile.
Before she could react properly, he gently lifted her chin, making her look directly at him.
