Luke had not expected her.
Out of everyone the Bureau could have sent, Emily was the one person he had least wanted to see standing outside his door tonight.
For a moment, even he was caught off guard.
Still, he stepped aside and let her in.
Then he quietly closed the door behind her.
Emily moved into the apartment and looked around for the first time.
This was her first time here.
The place was small and plain. Nothing about it felt comfortable enough to be called home. A sofa. A low table. A narrow kitchen space. A single lamp casting warm light over tired furniture. It looked clean enough, but empty in a way that was hard to ignore.
Luke led her to the sitting area.
Emily took her seat, but her eyes kept moving over the room before finally returning to him.
Then silence settled between them.
A heavy kind of silence.
Luke broke it first.
"So, about the incident…" he said. "I was impulsive. I suddenly got an idea about using my ability and lost patience. You know how reckless power users can get sometimes."
Emily gave him a long look.
There was something dark behind her calm face. Something restrained.
"That's it?" she asked.
Luke gave a dry, faint smile.
"Yeah."
Emily did not smile back.
Luke leaned slightly against the chair and said, "But what brings you here personally? Don't tell me you came to handle this yourself this late at night."
Then, after a pause, he added, "Sara and Sera will be waiting for you."
Emily replied at once.
"You don't need to worry about the kids. They're with my father and mother."
Her tone stayed level, but it was colder now.
"You need to tell me how you're going to deal with this mess."
Luke looked at her as if he didn't understand.
"What mess?" he asked. "I think I already explained myself."
Emily's eyes sharpened.
"Don't tell me you don't know your permit application has been delayed."
Luke frowned for real this time.
"What?" he said. "They delayed it? For how long?"
Emily did not answer.
She only kept looking at him.
Luke understood immediately.
So that old man really wanted to play this game.
Director Vale had not changed at all.
Luke let out a quiet breath and said with a trace of mockery, "So what now? Don't tell me you came here to get revenge on me."
Even though he already had a rough idea of why she had come, he still kept up the persona of the original Luke.
Emily ignored the mocking tone.
"I came here to cover your tracks," Emily said, her voice dropping. "I am not a petty person like you, Luke."
Then, without giving him time to answer, she continued.
"And I also want to know what really happened in that alley."
Luke felt his heart skip once.
But his expression did not change.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "I already told you everything."
"Luke," she said. "Did you lose your memory or something?"
She leaned forward slightly.
"You were one of the best agents in the entire Bureau."
Her voice tightened.
"And I learned from you. You taught me everything. Always. From the very beginning."
The words came out with a weight that Luke had not been prepared for.
"I can tell from looking at that alley that something happened there," Emily said.
Her voice was quiet now. Quiet and hard.
"You can't fool me."
Luke's mind tightened.
Damn.
This had gone outside his calculations.
He had expected a routine procedure.
He had expected a tired junior agent.
He had not expected Emily.
And certainly not Emily applying the same lessons he once taught her.
For a few seconds, he said nothing.
He only looked at her calmly, as if her words had changed nothing.
Emily stood up.
Then she walked toward him.
Luke did not move.
"If I'm right," she said quietly, "then your hideout is nearby. If I call the Bureau right now and ask them to search the area around that alley… I may find something. Right?"
She stopped in front of him.
Too close.
She looked up at him, and he looked back without blinking.
Then her voice hardened.
"Stand up."
Luke didn't want to argue with her.
Not now.
So he stood.
Now they were face to face.
For one second, Emily only looked at him.
Then, suddenly, she reached for him.
Her hands moved to his shirt, pushing and pulling at the fabric as if trying to check his body.
Luke froze in surprise and grabbed her wrists.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Emily did not answer.
Instead, she pulled free—
And in the very next second, she threw her arms around him.
She held him tightly.
Her face pressed against his chest.
Then she started crying.
Not quietly this time.
Not with the careful control she had shown before.
Her voice cracked as she held him harder and said, "I thought something had happened to you."
Luke went still.
Emily's body trembled against him.
"If something really happened to you…" she said, her words breaking apart, "what was I supposed to say to our daughters?"
Her grip tightened.
"Please don't do anything reckless," she whispered. "I don't want to lose you forever."
Luke did not move.
He could not be cruel to someone already carrying this much pain.
The original Luke had left behind a mess large enough to drown in, and now Luke was the one standing inside it.
He didn't know what he was supposed to feel toward her.
In the novel, Emily had been good to the original Luke. Even after the divorce. Even after the betrayal. Even at the very end, when the original was dying and begging for help, she had tried to save him.
But things had changed long before that.
Not suddenly. Gradually.
Every time he clashed with the male lead, Emily tried to stand between them.
But Luke made it harder each time.
His suspicion. His recklessness. The way he kept pushing her away.
Again and again, he forced her into a choice—until choosing him became the harder one.
So she stopped.
And little by little, her trust… and her feelings… shifted to someone else.
Original Luke was destined to be discarded by the narrative. She was destined to move on.
Luke knew that future.
But Emily didn’t.
Emily slowly stopped crying.
She still didn’t let go of him.
Then she lifted her face and looked into his eyes—too close. Her breathing was uneven. Her eyes were wet and unfocused, clouded by fear and exhaustion.
Her gaze dropped to his lips.
And she moved closer.
Slowly.
Like she wasn’t thinking.
Like her body was moving before her mind could stop it.
Luke froze, mind blank for a moment.
Then, when her lips were almost there—
He snapped awake.
He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back.
Emily blinked hard, as she had just returned to herself.
Her face changed as realisation hit.
Shock.
Embarrassment.
And something worse, because the divorce had been finalised that morning.
And now, at night, she had almost kissed him.
The room fell silent again.
Snow fell against the window.
The heater hummed.
And between them, something had shifted — something that could not be shifted back.