Chapter 1081 Zhane’s Thought
She knew she was acting a little paranoid. But now that she could no longer rely on the novel as a reference for what would happen next, she felt unmoored, lost in a future she could no longer predict. The sense of uncertainty frightened her more than she wanted to admit.
If something happened to them while they were out of her sight...
That thought alone was enough to make her chest tighten.
After all, Dave’s abduction had already proven that the storyline had changed far more drastically than she had anticipated. It had caught her completely off guard. She had always believed that by taking Alice’s female lead halo and altering her own fate, any danger that once targeted Alice would simply be redirected toward her instead, something she believed she could handle on her own.
Even when she was injured during the race in Paris, left with a fracture and confined to a wheelchair for a time, she hadn’t thought much of it. To her, it had merely seemed like the narrative correcting itself.
But now... the danger was no longer limited to her.
It was beginning to affect the male leads as well.
The realization filled her with a quiet, creeping fear. Countless "what ifs" flooded her mind: what if their male lead halos could no longer protect them? What if they suffered irreversible injuries... or worse?
She couldn’t even bear to finish that line of thought.
It felt as though invisible claws were raking through her insides, while a chilling cold spread from her feet upward, freezing her in place with dread.
Hera wanted to stop Zhane from leaving, even if it was just for a moment, just to make sure he would be safe. But she knew this was an emergency, and the last thing she wanted was to delay him when his work could mean the difference between life and death. So she held herself back, swallowing the urge to call out to him.
Still, that didn’t stop the worry clawing at her chest.
All she could do now was sit and wait for news, helpless, idle, and painfully aware of how useless that felt. If only she could move, do something, take action with her own hands... maybe the restless anxiety twisting inside her would ease, even just a little.
But she couldn’t.
Her gaze drifted to Luke, and her heart tightened at the sight.
The first male lead of the novel, someone who was supposed to be strong and untouchable, now looked utterly battered and bruised. His once pale skin was mottled with dark purple and black marks, like a body that had been mercilessly beaten, making him look both pitiful and unsettling at the same time.
Seeing him like that sent a chill down her spine.
If even Luke could end up in such a state... then what about the others?
The mere thought that the rest of the male leads might return just as broken, or worse, made her fear swell uncontrollably, her fingers curling tightly in her lap as her mind spiraled with dread.
Fortunately, Luke showed no intention of leaving either. After noticing how restless and visibly worried Hera was, he seemed to understand her state without her needing to say a single word. The way she kept glancing at him with those deep, searching eyes, almost as if she feared he might suddenly get up and rush back into the battlefield, was both obvious and, in a way, faintly amusing to him.
Her anxiety was written all over her face.
Instead of pointing it out, Luke simply stayed.
He remained beside Hera in quiet companionship, choosing not to move, not to add to the weight already pressing on her shoulders. With the tension hanging thick in the air, the two of them sat there together, listening in silence as they waited for Gerald and Sasha’s report, each passing second stretching longer under the shadow of uncertainty, while Rafael was still busy in his series of calls just to help out.
Meanwhile, the moment Zhane stepped out of Hera’s penthouse, he didn’t hesitate. He got into his car and sped out of Green Dragon Manor’s vicinity with an urgency that bordered on reckless, as if he feared that if he lingered even a second longer, Hera might call him back and make him stay.
Only after he reached the city center did he finally slow down.
He pulled over to the side of the road, the engine still humming softly, before taking out his phone and opening the pinned location sent by the intermediary who had reported their findings. His gaze hardened as he stared at the coordinates. He needed to confirm it himself, to see with his own eyes that this lead was real and not some elaborate misdirection.
Without wasting time, he contacted his people and ordered them to converge on the site.
But it was a short-notice mission. They needed time to prepare, to arm themselves, to move discreetly. Which meant that, for now, all Zhane could do was wait for their rendezvous before making any move. Charging in alone would be no different from walking straight into a tiger’s lair unarmed, and as rational as he was, he knew better than to act on impulse.
Still, caution didn’t mean he was unprepared.
As a gun enthusiast, he always carried a licensed firearm. His hand instinctively moved to the compartment near his right arm, opening it just enough to check. The cold gleam of his silver Desert Eagle and the spare magazine resting beside it came into view.
Only then did he let out a quiet breath of relief.
Even so, a trace of tension lingered in his chest. After all, the enemy he was about to face was a mafia faction, the very same group that had managed to injure Luke so severely. That alone was proof that they were anything but easy to deal with, and Zhane knew that one careless move could cost far more than he was willing to risk.
For now, Zhane assumed that Hera had already dispatched her people to multiple locations, but not this one. Which meant that although Sasha had managed to pinpoint several possible hideouts, there were still gaps, places that might have been overlooked, or worse, locations deliberately hidden by an enemy cunning enough to set up multiple burrows to avoid being tracked.
Their opponent might be careful. Methodical.
And time was slipping through their fingers.
In the end, all they could do was divide their efforts and work together to find Dave before it was too late. Hera might have the network, the manpower, and the resources, but even she was gambling on the hope that one of these leads would finally yield results.
Zhane was no different.
Since he already had a lead in his hands, it made more sense for him to verify it personally. If it turned out to be a false alarm, then so be it; he would simply return quietly to Hera’s side without making a fuss or adding to her burden.
Especially now.
With Leo’s recent ambush, Luke’s severe injuries, and Dave’s abduction, it was obvious that Hera’s mental state had been shaken, even if she tried to stay composed. Ironically, she had never reacted this strongly even when her own life was in danger, yet when it came to them, her worry only grew heavier.
If he told her he was going out to investigate another lead, she would overthink, spiral, and possibly try to stop him.
So saying that he was merely heading back to the hospital for work had been the safest choice, a small white lie meant to keep her from worrying even more while he moved in the shadows to gather information on his own.
Deep down, Zhane couldn’t help but feel a quiet warmth spreading through his chest. It was impossible not to notice how Hera treated all of them equally, how she valued each of them without bias, worrying over their safety far more than her own. Even now, despite everything happening, her first instinct had never been for herself, but for them.
That alone was enough to make him fall for her all over again.
But warmth aside, he also knew he couldn’t just stand by.
They couldn’t always rely on Hera to be the one shielding everyone, bearing the pressure, and cleaning up every crisis on her own. As men, and as people who stood by her side, it was only right that they shared that burden instead of piling more onto her shoulders. There were so many of them, more than enough to work together, to handle threats, to solve problems before they ever reached her, rather than letting her carry everything alone.
After all, the one who should be protected and cherished was her.
And yet, they understood her well enough to know that she would never accept being treated like something fragile. Hera was strong-willed, capable, and fiercely independent. She despised being restrained, pitied, or placed on a pedestal like a porcelain doll that needed constant guarding.