Chapter 4 – Warning Signs

The next morning, Elena couldn’t stop thinking about the man from the night before.

She remembered the way he stepped out of the shadows like he’d been waiting for that exact moment. The way his voice was calm but somehow made the man following her back off without another word. And, most of all, she remembered the way he’d said her name.

Her name.

She’d never seen him before. Never spoken to him until last night.

“Maybe I told him without realizing,” she muttered to herself while making coffee, but the idea sounded ridiculous. She would’ve remembered telling a stranger her name, especially one who looked like… that. Tall, broad shoulders, dark eyes that didn’t just look at her—they read her.

Daniel called during her breakfast, his voice apologetic. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there last night. I hate that you had to walk alone.”

“It’s fine,” she said, even though it hadn’t been fine until that stranger appeared. She hesitated before adding, “Someone… actually helped me. I think I was being followed.”

Daniel’s tone sharpened. “What do you mean, ‘someone helped you’?”

“A man. Just… I don’t know. He told the guy to back off and then walked me home.”

“Did you get his name?”

She thought of the small, knowing smile the man had given her before vanishing into the dark. “No.”

Daniel sighed, clearly uneasy. “You shouldn’t talk to strangers like that, Elena. You don’t know his intentions.”

She didn’t argue. But part of her bristled. She wasn’t reckless. And last night hadn’t felt like danger—at least not from the man who’d walked beside her.

Still, the memory of him lingered through her day.

At lunch, she glanced out the window of the café where she worked on her laptop. Her heart skipped when she saw a familiar figure leaning casually against a black car across the street. He was wearing the same calm expression, as if he belonged there.

Her first instinct was to look away. Her second was to look again, just to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. But when she looked back, he was gone.

It unsettled her.

That evening, Daniel came by after work, and she told herself she was imagining things, that the man wasn’t following her, that he’d just happened to be in the same area. But the lie didn’t sit comfortably.

Lying in bed that night, she thought about the way his eyes had lingered on hers, not in the way men on the street sometimes looked—hungry, careless—but in a way that felt intentional. Almost… claiming.

The next day, she saw him again. This time in the grocery store. He didn’t approach her, didn’t speak. Just passed by the end of an aisle, glanced at her, and kept moving.

She stood frozen for a moment, her pulse quickening.

She should’ve been scared. But instead, she felt something more complicated—an uncomfortable mix of curiosity and something she didn’t want to name.

She didn’t know yet that Adrian Moretti was always close. Watching. Waiting. Protecting her in ways she didn’t see… and pulling her into a world she couldn’t escape.

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