Keifer Watson's office was wrapped in silence, broken only by the soft hum of the city far below. A thin beam of light cut across his desk, resting on the open files he had stopped reading minutes ago.
He sensed his grandfather before he heard him.
"Keifer," the old man said gently. "I met her again today."
Keifer's fingers stilled.
"…Her?"
His voice was calm. Too calm.
"The young surgeon. The one who helped me in the café."
Keifer finally lifted his eyes.
"What happened?" he asked sharply.
His grandfather sat across from him, the excitement in his voice impossible to hide.
"She was in the garden. Reading, working… exactly the same. Composed. Focused. I spoke to her this time."
Keifer leaned back slowly.
"And?"
"I asked her name."
His jaw tightened.
"…Tell me."
A quiet smile touched the old man's lips.
"Jay," he said softly.
"Jay Mariano."
The name landed differently.
Not like a casual detail.
Like something that had been waiting for him.
Keifer repeated it under his breath.
"Jay… Mariano."
He stood up without realizing it, moving toward the glass wall, eyes narrowing at the city as if the answer were hiding somewhere inside it.
"A young surgeon. Exceptionally skilled. Calm under pressure. Invisible to every professional channel I have access to…"
His voice dropped.
"That shouldn't exist."
His grandfather watched him carefully.
"You searched for her before I even told you her name, didn't you?"
Keifer didn't deny it.
"Yes," he said quietly.
"And I found nothing."
Silence stretched.
Then his grandfather spoke again, softer now.
"Keifer… you looked more disturbed when you couldn't find her than I've ever seen you in business."
Keifer let out a slow breath through his nose.
"I don't like gaps," he said.
"I don't like missing data.
And I definitely don't like people who appear in my life… and vanish without explanation."
His grandfather smiled faintly.
"She helped me when I needed it most. That is all I know."
Keifer turned back to him.
"That's enough."
He walked to his desk, already opening his laptop, fingers moving fast and precise.
"Run private medical circles. Teaching hospitals. Fellowship programs. International licensing boards.
Start from surgeons under thirty. Filter by trauma and emergency specialization."
His grandfather raised an eyebrow.
"You're serious."
Keifer's voice was cold. Absolute.
"I always am."
A quiet tension flickered in his eyes—something between curiosity and a feeling he hadn't allowed himself in years.
A challenge.
A pull.
Someone had entered his world without permission.
And that bothered him far more than he wanted to admit.
He paused.
For just a moment.
Then, in a voice so low it was almost a confession, he whispered—
"If she is the one I have been unknowingly looking for all these years…
the reason I ignored every woman who ever came near me…"
His jaw tightened.
"This time… I won't let her disappear."