As she turned... she gasped.
A swarm of reporters and cameramen surged toward her. She told herself they were after someone else, but there was no one else there.
"Oh my God… why are they after me?"
They hurled questions at her, shouting over one another.
"Miss Ashford, is it true the wedding is off?"
"Did you call it off, or was it Mr. Arden?"
"Is it because of another man?"
Lyra was startled by the questions as she kept striding toward her car at the end of the parking lot while her mind kept thinking why.
They were hardly a sensational couple, and she was not a public figure, just a doctor at the very start of her career.
She was certain someone with bad intentions had sent the media after her.
An unpleasant event like this had happened years ago. It was when her mother had died in a brutal accident.
She had witnessed a swarm of reporters descend on her grandfather back then.
They had caused nothing but chaos, piling stress onto a grieving family which led her grandfather to fall ill.
The company's shares plunged, and one problem after another followed, until everything they had worked for seemed to fall apart.
The memory made her panic spike, and she broke into a run.
Unfortunately for her… in her haste, she stumbled, and her keys slipped from her grip, sliding beneath the car.
"My keys…" she cried.
She lunged for the keys, but blinding flashes erupted before she could reach them.
Just as the crowd of troublemakers stirred chaos, someone witnessed it and rushed to them.
"Hey… step back!" he shouted from behind them. A tall man in a dark trench coat pushed his way through the crowd and stopped beside her.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his softened voice making her feel safe, unlike when he had shouted earlier.
Lyra raised her gaze to the man who offered his hand. She was mesmerized by his pair of eyes, beautiful like amethyst gems.
She blinked, pulling herself together, and took his hand to stand. "Yes… thank you, sir."
The persistent flash of cameras from the reporters continued.
Rowan frowned. "Enough!" he said again, this time colder.
They hesitated. Some lowered their cameras, while others stepped back, murmuring among themselves.
Rowan crouched and reached for her keys under the car.
"You're safe now."
"Thank you," she whispered, hissing softly as pain shot through her scraped palms.
Rowan's gaze flicked to her hands. A faint line appeared between his brows.
"You're hurt. Let's go inside and have a doctor take a look."
"It's fine, just a little scratch," she said, refusing. She needed to get back quickly anyway, and Nora was waiting at the hospital entrance.
As the crowd thinned, a man pushed through.
In his hand, something metallic flashed. He slowly approached the couple, who were caught off guard, and lunged.
He obviously aimed toward Lyra, and Rowan reacted on instinct, yanking her into his arms.
He knocked the blade aside. The man swung again, not noticing Kane sprinting toward him and throwing a punch.
He staggered.
And before he could recover, Kane ducked low and swept his legs out from under him.
He hit the ground hard. Kane immediately pinned him and wrenched the blade from his grip before he could strike again.
"Boss, are you alright?"
Rowan flexed his injured hand, blood seeping between his fingers.
"I'm fine," he said, while Lyra trembled in his arms.
She clutched his clothes, terrified, completely unaware that Rowan had been injured because of her.
Just then, Nora and Edris came running, panic written across their faces.
Edris frowned and pulled her away from Rowan immediately, checking her condition before turning toward Rowan and noticing the blood dripping to the floor.
They moved quickly back into the building to get medical attention immediately.
Once inside, Edris attended to Rowan's injured hand. He muttered something, shaking his head.
Rowan barely acknowledged the doctor, his eyes locked across the room on Lyra.
She sat as a nurse tended to her scratched palm.
"Dr. Ashford, here. Have a sip," the nurse said, pressing a cup into her hands.
Rowan's brows rose at the title, surprised that she was a doctor. She looked shaken, not like someone who saves lives for a living.
Outside the treatment room, Kane Prince gave his statement to the police officer, and Chloe watched from a distance, tense.
This wasn't how she'd thought things would turn out.