Chapter 2 STOLEN GLANCES

Chapter 2

After the afternoon in the park, Isabella tried to convince herself that the encounter meant nothing.

He was a stranger. An ordinary man she happened to collide with on a quiet path. There was no reason for his face to linger in her thoughts, no reason for his voice to echo in her mind long after she returned to the marble silence of her home.

And yet, that night, sleep refused to come easily.

As she lay beneath silk sheets in her oversized bedroom, the chandeliers dimmed and the city lights flickering beyond her window, she found herself staring at the ceiling, replaying the moment their eyes had met.

It didn't feel dramatic. It didn't feel reckless.

It felt calm.

Certain.

As though something inside her had settled instead of stirred.

That was what unsettled her the most.

Isabella had met countless men before - polished, educated, carefully selected by her father's social circle. They had recited compliments like rehearsed poetry and spoken of futures mapped in numbers and alliances. None of them had disturbed her peace.

But Daniel hadn't disturbed her.

He had quieted her.

And that frightened her more than chaos ever could.

Three days passed.

Three days of attending charity meetings beside her father. Three days of polite smiles and rehearsed conversations about investments and appearances. Three days of pretending she wasn't hoping to see him again.

She caught herself scanning crowds without meaning to. Listening for a voice that didn't belong in her world.

On the fourth day, she returned to the park.

She told the driver she enjoyed the fresh air, but deep down she knew she was searching for something far more specific than sunlight and trees.

She saw him almost immediately.

Daniel was kneeling beside a broken wooden bench, a toolbox open at his side. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing forearms marked with small scars - quiet signatures of a life built through effort rather than inheritance. He worked carefully, methodically, as though the smallest repairs deserved full attention.

There was something grounding about him.

He fixed things.

The thought lingered in her mind longer than it should have.

As if sensing her presence, Daniel looked up.

Their eyes met again.

This time, neither of them seemed surprised.

A slow smile spread across his face.

"You didn't trip over me this time," he said lightly.

She laughed, softer than she intended. "I suppose I learned my lesson."

He stood, wiping his hands on a cloth. "I was hoping you'd come back."

The honesty in his voice caught her off guard. There was no performance behind it. No calculation.

Just the truth.

"I come here often," she replied.

It wasn't entirely true.

But she suspected it would soon be.

After that day, their meetings became frequent. Not officially planned, yet somehow expected. Isabella found reasons to visit the park in the afternoons, and Daniel always seemed to have work nearby - repairing benches, fixing loose railings, helping vendors with small mechanical problems.

They talked about ordinary things at first.

Daniel spoke about growing up with his mother in a small apartment across town and how he had started working young to support her. He didn't complain. In fact, he spoke with quiet pride. Hard work, he said, gave him purpose.

"But sometimes," he admitted one afternoon, tightening a loose bolt, "I feel like life is supposed to be bigger than this."

"Bigger how?" Isabella asked.

He paused, considering his answer carefully.

"Like I'm meant for something more. Like I'm waiting for someone important... even if I don't know who that is."

Her heart skipped in a way she couldn't explain.

"I understand that feeling," she said softly.

And she did.

Because despite the wealth and comfort surrounding her life, she had always felt as though something essential was missing - as though her story had begun long before she became Isabella Laurent.

As the days passed, their conversations deepened.

Daniel noticed her intelligence, the way she listened fully, as if his words mattered. Isabella noticed his steadiness - the way he never tried to impress her or ask questions about the things that clearly separated their worlds.

He treated her as though she were simply Isabella.

Not a surname. Not a fortune. Not a future investment.

Just her.

But at night, something began to change.

Daniel started to dream.

At first, the dreams were vague. A feeling of standing somewhere unfamiliar. The sound of rain against stone. The scent of something lost.

Then they became clearer.

He stood beneath heavy rain in a place he did not recognize. The sky was dark - not evening-dark, but the kind of darkness that presses against your lungs. Water soaked through his clothes, clung to his skin, blurred his vision.

Across from him stood Isabella.

But she wasn't smiling.

Her eyes were filled with something that made his chest ache.

Sorrow.

No - not just sorrow.

Finality.

He tried to move toward her.

But his legs felt heavy, as though the ground beneath him were pulling him down.

"Don't," she whispered.

The rain grew louder.

He reached out anyway.

And just as his fingers brushed hers -

The world fractured.

A loud, deafening sound tore through the air. Metal twisting. Glass shattering. A flash of white light so blinding it erased everything.

He felt himself falling.

Not physically.

But as though something vital was being pulled away from him.

And in the distance, Isabella screamed.

Daniel would wake then - breathless, heart racing violently against his ribs. His sheets tangled around his legs, his chest tight as though he had been running.

The dream always ended the same way.

With loss.

With separation.

With the unbearable certainty that he had not been able to protect her.

He didn't understand it.

He had never experienced anything like it. Yet the emotions in the dream felt more real than his waking life. The grief lingered long after he opened his eyes.

He began to dread sleep.

Meanwhile, Isabella felt something shifting too.

The closer she grew to Daniel, the stronger her fear became - not fear of him, but fear of losing him.

It made no sense.

She had only known him for days. Weeks, at most.

And yet sometimes, when she looked at him laughing softly beneath the trees, a sudden chill would pass through her.

As though time were fragile.

As though the universe were counting.

One afternoon, as they sat side by side on the bench he had repaired, a comfortable silence settled between them. The sun dipped lower, casting golden light through the branches, turning the world warm and forgiving.

"Can I ask you something?" Daniel said quietly.

She nodded.

"Do you ever feel like you've known someone before you actually meet them?"

Her breath caught.

"Yes," she answered honestly.

He swallowed, staring at his hands.

"I keep having these dreams," he admitted. "About you. They don't make sense. But in them... I lost you. Or maybe you lose me. I can't tell which."

A tremor passed through her.

"When I look at you," he continued softly, "it doesn't feel new. It feels like I'm remembering something I forgot. And in those dreams... it feels like I didn't get enough time."

The words struck her deeper than he realized.

"Maybe," she said gently, her voice barely above a whisper, "some connections don't begin in this lifetime."

He gave a small, uncertain laugh.

But he didn't dismiss the idea.

Because somewhere deep inside him, he felt it too.

They didn't rush into declarations. They didn't label what was growing between them. Instead, their connection deepened in quieter ways - through lingering eye contact, shared silences that felt full instead of empty, conversations that stretched longer each day.

It was not loud. It was not reckless.

It was steady.

And that steadiness felt more dangerous than anything else.

Because while fate was drawing them closer, something unseen was already tightening its grip.

Some loves arrive gently.

And some are only borrowed.