Page 35 of I See You

Something deeper.

But before she could process it, Hassan turned and walked out without another word. The door clicked shut behind him, leaving a thick silence in his absence. Sevyn let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, sinking back into her chair.

Well… she tried.

She turned to her laptop, forcing herself to focus on work, but her mind wouldn’t let go of him.

Because what she had told him? It was true. Hassan wasn’t broken. He was tired. Exhausted from carrying so much for so long. She felt it the moment he stepped into her office.

The weight of everything he was hiding. The coldness, the distance, the way people probably feared him on sight.

But her? She wasn’t afraid. And that realization unnerved her.

How could a man who was feared—who had killed with his bare hands, who she had watched do it—

Not scare her? Why did he intrigue her instead?

Then there was the way he looked at her. Even through the walls he kept up, there had been something there. Harper had been right. Hassan had looked at her differently. With a sense of softness he probably didn’t even realize he had given her.

But why? This was their first conversation—if she could even call it that. So why did it feel like he could see past her walls, her struggles, her demons?

That scared her even more.

And for the first time since agreeing to take him on, regret crept into her chest.

Maybe it was good he didn’t fall for her words. Because if he did…Hemightseethroughherwhenshewassupposedtobetheone saving him.

Sevyn pulled out her phone, her fingers hovering over the screen before she finally typed out a message to Harper.

Sevyn: It didn’t work. I tried, but I couldn’t get through to him.

She hesitated, then added—

Sevyn: I think I got him to hear me, but not enough to even consider counseling.

Seconds later, her phone buzzed.

Harper: Thanks. ??

That sad emoji made something heavy settle in her chest.

She hated feeling like she let Harper down. But there was something about Hassan that made all of this feel… different.

And it wasn’t his street reputation. It wasn’t the whispers about the bodies he had buried. It was him.

The way his presence took up an entire room without him saying a word. The way his eyes held something dark, something she should be wary of—but instead, it pulled her in. The way one conversation, barely even that, had her thinking about him when she was supposed to be moving the hell on.

"Get it together, Sevyn," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head.

She had seen countless clients—damaged, dangerous, traumatized.

She had never let one linger in her mind like this.

No. She couldn’t make him a client. Something about this—about him—felt too personal. Too dangerous. Not for his healing. But for hers.

Sevyn exhaled sharply, pushing Hassan—and the strange, unexplainable pull she felt toward him—to the back of her mind.

A soft knock sounded at her door. Her next client.

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