Chapter 1
Rain blurred the streetlights into long, trembling lines as I walked home alone.
Couples kissed under shop roofs, laughing like the world was soft and safe.
I hated how jealous it made me.
I hated how empty my hands felt.
But tonight wasn’t about jealousy.
Tonight was about survival.
I felt him before I saw him—heavy footsteps, too close, too slow.
The man who had been following me for weeks.
The man who became more obsessed every time I rejected him.
The man who knew my secret:
I wasn’t just a girl.
I was a hacker.
A good one.
Good enough to break something I should’ve never touched.
“Stop walking,” he said.
My blood turned to ice.
I ran.
He followed.
The rain hit my skin like needles. I turned a corner, heart punching against my ribs—
Then a black car slid between us, silent and deliberate.
The door opened.
A man stepped out. Not a boy.
Tall. Steady. Cold.
A presence that felt like gravity.
He didn’t speak.
He didn’t look at me.
He walked straight toward the obsessed man.
The fight lasted seconds.
A punch.
A crash.
A body hitting the ground.
Silence.
The stranger didn’t even breathe hard.
He wiped blood off his knuckles like he’d done it a thousand times.
He turned to leave—
Then thunder cracked, and he paused.
For the first time, he looked at me.
Not surprised.
Not curious.
Not confused.
He looked like he already knew me.
Knew what I could do.
Knew why I was being hunted.
His expression didn’t change.
Half-interested.
Cold.
Aware.
He stepped back into his car.
The window rolled down halfway.
His hand appeared—holding an umbrella.
Not warmth.
Not charity.
Raindrops slid down my hair and traced my skin, soaking me until I could barely feel the cold anymore. I stood there, shivering, breath uneven—
when his voice cut through the storm.
Low. Calm. Too attractive for a dangerous man.
“Should I drop you home?”
A pause.
“Or do you want to come to my place?”
My heart stumbled.
I wasn’t brave enough for either answer, but his voice pulled at me in a way I couldn’t explain.
I got into the car…
front seat.
He stayed in the back.
I couldn’t see his face clearly—only a shadow, only an outline—
but his voice…
I knew that voice.
I just couldn’t remember from where.
The car stopped in front of my house.
I froze.
I hadn’t told him my location.
Not a single word.
Confusion wrapped around me like the rain itself.
Before I could speak, he leaned forward slightly, his voice brushing the back of my neck.
“The next time we meet,” he murmured,
“you’ll definitely be mine. So don’t act like you don’t know me.”
My breath caught.
I lifted my hand slightly toward the half-open window—
to say thank you, maybe, or to steady myself—
and he caught it.
Soft.
Deliberate.
Dangerous.
He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it once—slow, warm, claiming.
The car drove away before my heartbeat could even settle.
