Page 175 of The Heart of Winter

LAKE

A full week passed.

Every single day, Aiden and I showed up in the DevApp skyscraper.

Jacob Lowen had enough decency not to have the security guards throw us out like stray dogs, but that was as far as his kindness went.

For the entire week, he ignored us.

Day after day, he came to the office. Day after day, he left. And every single time, he walked past us without a word.

We had become a spectacle, a daily event at the company. We just made sure that Skye and Soren never saw us, we didn’t want them to worry. Although I still think they kinda knew.

But then, on the eighth day, something unexpected happened.

We were sitting in the lobby. I was staring stubbornly at the elevator doors when, suddenly, I felt the urge to turn my head. I glanced toward the building’s glass entrance.

Aiden followed my gaze, and suddenly, he blurted out, "Lake, look—that’s Gabriel!"

Gabriel was Van’s son. Van, Aiden’s close cousin with whom he had basically grown up, was the very person responsible for bringing us together. Forty years ago, he was the one who arranged for me to move in with Aiden.

In a way, he was an architect of our marriage.

Gabriel was his son from a second marriage, a shy young man who had been passionate about martial arts and studying computer science… at least until he got into trouble with the law about six months ago.

Now, he was walking toward us with a very short omega beside him, a guy wearing strange electronic glasses. The man looked familiar. After a moment, I realized who he had to be.

"Uncle Lake? Uncle Aiden?" Gabriel called out, surprise written all over his face. "What are you doing here?"

The short omega stopped as well. He looked… peculiar.

Gabriel noticed us glancing at him and cleared his throat. "This is my boss, Mr. Blue Lowen." He swallowed, as if unsure what else to say, then mumbled, "I work as his, um… bodyguard."

I reached out for a handshake, but Gabriel quickly interjected, "Mr. Lowen doesn’t do handshakes."

Instead, Aiden opened his arms and pulled Gabriel into a firm hug.

"Gabriel, I’m so glad you got out of all that trouble, son. I know Van can finally sleep at night."

Gabriel gave a sheepish nod. "That’s thanks to… Mr. Lowen’s kindness," he murmured.

He looked good. In fact, he looked better than the last time I had seen him, at Skye’s graduation, not long before he was arrested. He seemed even more built now, at the peak of physical form. His face strongly resembled the rest of the Nolan family. His hair was a deep, dark chestnut, and his features had that same striking symmetry that was characteristic of all Aiden’s relatives.

What set him apart from the rest of the Nolans, though, was a kind of subtle, almost shy energy. It made him seem like he was always lingering in the background, overlooked, ignored by the family.

But now? That shyness seemed less pronounced.

As if his self-esteem had grown over the past few months. It made him even more handsome, gave him a certain glow. Had this job helped him come out of his shell?

He cleared his throat. "So what are you two doing here?"

"We’ve been trying to talk to Jacob Lowen," I explained. "For a week now. We want to ask him to continue the search."

Gabriel’s expression tightened. Two and a half weeks had passed since the crash. In his mind, it was obvious—there was no way anyone could have survived.

I felt a wave of frustration, but of course, Gabriel couldn’t read my thoughts. He didn’t know what I knew.

Then Aiden spoke up. "Snow and Summer say they’re alive. They’re on one of the Kuril Islands," he said firmly.

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