Chapter 1 – The Meeting
The first time I saw him, he was leaning against the wall of a crowded party, cigarette between his fingers, eyes sharp like he was bored of the entire world. And yet, when his gaze landed on me, I felt as though the chaos of music, laughter, and clinking glasses fell away. He didn’t smile. He didn’t even nod. He just stared, and it was enough to freeze me where I stood.
I wasn’t the type of girl who believed in love at first sight. But there was something about him—something dangerous—that pulled me closer, like gravity refusing to let me escape.
“New here?” His voice was deep, raspy, almost careless, as though my presence was another inconvenience.
“Yes,” I said, clutching the edge of my dress.
He chuckled low, shaking his head. “You don’t belong here.”
“I could say the same about you,” I answered before thinking. His eyebrow lifted, amused.
That was the beginning. That night, instead of joining the others in laughter and dancing, I found myself standing outside with him, the city lights glowing faintly in the distance. He smoked, I shivered in the night air, and he occasionally threw me glances that felt like questions I wasn’t ready to answer.
“Don’t get too close,” he muttered when silence stretched too long.
“Why not?”
“Because people like me ruin people like you.”
I should have walked away right then. But instead, I asked his name. And when he finally said it—Adrian—it rolled off his tongue like a warning wrapped in silk.
That was how it began.
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Chapter 2 – The Pull
Adrian was impossible to ignore. Every time I told myself not to think of him, I’d find him waiting at the edge of my world, leaning against walls, staring like he knew I’d come running. He wasn’t warm. He wasn’t gentle. But he was magnetic.
One evening, I found him outside the café where I worked, arms crossed, smirk playing on his lips.
“Do you follow me?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“Maybe,” he replied. “Or maybe the universe wants you near me.”
I wanted to argue, but the thrill in my chest betrayed me.
His conversations were sharp, almost mocking. He teased me until I flushed, challenged everything I believed in, and refused to let me win a single argument. But then, in the quiet moments, he’d look at me like I was the only thing worth seeing. Those moments kept me hooked.
Adrian never spoke about himself, but I caught glimpses. A scar on his knuckles. The way his jaw tightened when certain songs played. The shadows in his eyes when silence lingered too long.
He was a storm, and I was already standing in the rain, too drenched to escape.
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Chapter 3 – Possessive Tendencies
The first time Adrian’s toxic side slipped out, it was over something small. I was laughing with a coworker after my shift when Adrian appeared, his hand gripping my wrist tightly.
“Who’s that?” His tone was calm, but his grip burned.
“My coworker. Why?”
He didn’t answer. He just dragged me outside, his jaw tight, his silence louder than shouting.
“You don’t get to control who I talk to,” I snapped, yanking free.
His eyes darkened. “I’m not controlling. I’m protecting. There’s a difference.”
That night, he apologized, but not with words. He kissed me like fire, like punishment, like he wanted to erase the world from my lips until only his name remained. I told myself it was passion, not possession. I told myself it meant he cared.
But deep down, I knew. Adrian saved his toxic side for me.
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Chapter 4 – Sweet & Dangerous
Adrian was a paradox. One day, he’d show up at my door with coffee and a smirk, teasing me until I couldn’t stop smiling. The next, he’d vanish for days, leaving me restless and furious, only to return with bruised knuckles and eyes filled with storms.
When he held me, he was gentle, brushing his fingers over my skin like I was fragile. When he was angry, he became sharp, words cutting deeper than knives.
“I don’t like when you disappear,” I told him one night.
He shrugged. “You’ll get used to it.”
But I didn’t. Every absence carved holes in me, and every return filled them with fire. I hated him for making me crave him. I hated myself more for letting him.
Yet, when he whispered against my neck, “You’re mine,” I couldn’t deny how much I wanted it to be true.
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Chapter 5 – The First Break
It came crashing one evening. Adrian saw me talking to an old friend outside the café, and his expression turned cold. He didn’t yell. He didn’t strike. He simply walked away, leaving me with the sharp edge of his silence.
I didn’t hear from him for a week.
I told myself it was over. I told myself I deserved better. But when he finally appeared at my door, eyes tired, voice soft, saying, “I can’t stay away from you,” I melted.
I should have said no. Instead, I let him in.
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Chapter 6 – Addicted to Pain
Our relationship became a cycle. His jealousy. My protests. His apologies. My forgiveness. We broke apart and stitched ourselves together again, each time more fragile, each time more desperate.
Friends warned me. They said he was toxic, dangerous, no good for me.
They weren’t wrong. But love, when poisoned, is addictive. And Adrian was the kind of poison I couldn’t resist.
“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered once, tracing my jaw.
“Then be better,” I whispered back.
He laughed bitterly. “For you, I’ll try. But don’t expect miracles.”
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Chapter 7 – Secrets & Scars
It was in the middle of one of our arguments that I saw it: the scar across his ribs, raw and jagged.
“What happened?” I asked, softer now.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.”
But he told me anyway. A violent childhood. Fights he couldn’t escape. A family that abandoned him. The world had turned him cruel, and he had learned to survive by being harsher than the pain.
And yet, he admitted, “With you, I want to be different. But I don’t know how.”
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Chapter 8 – The Breaking Point
The worst fight came when I told him I needed space.
“You’re leaving me?” His voice was sharp, dangerous.
“I’m losing myself,” I said, tears burning. “I can’t breathe around you anymore.”
His hand slammed against the wall beside me, making me flinch. “You think you can survive without me? You’re mine.”
For the first time, I saw fear in his eyes—not of losing control, but of losing me.
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Chapter 9 – The Choice
I had to decide. My friends begged me to walk away. My heart begged me to stay.
Adrian wasn’t safe. He wasn’t gentle. But he was mine. And when he stood in front of me, broken and desperate, whispering, “Don’t go. Please. I’ll burn the world if you leave,” I realized my choice was already made.
I stayed.
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Chapter 10 – Toxic Forever
Love doesn’t always heal. Sometimes, it destroys. But in that destruction, there’s a strange kind of beauty.
Adrian never changed. He was still jealous, still possessive, still toxic. But he loved me with a fire no one else could.
And me? I accepted it. Not because I couldn’t do better. But because no one else could love me the way he did—fierce, broken, consuming.
He only saved his toxic side for me. And I chose to call it love.
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✨ The End ✨
