PROLOGUE

Evelyn Sinclair

I had a perfect life. That's what people always said.

A beautiful home. A father who adored me. Brothers who shielded me from anything ugly in the world. And I suppose they weren't wrong my life was soft, protected. I had never wanted for anything, never known what it was like to struggle.

I should have been happy.

And for a while, I was.

Until he came into my life.

Noel.

The quiet boy with worn out clothes and a stare that lingered just a second too long. The one who never truly belonged in my world but somehow, forced his way in.

At first, he was just my tutor. Then, he was my friend. Then, something else. Something more.

But whatever we were it was never love.

At least, not to me.

Noel Blake

The first time I saw Evelyn, I stopped breathing.

She was the kind of girl who belonged in fairytales. The kind who had never known hunger, exhaustion, or desperation. And from the moment I laid eyes on her, I wanted her.

It wasn't just a crush. It wasn't something I could brush off. It was a need. A sickness.

I didn't care that I was just a nobody a shadow in her perfect, glittering world.

I made myself part of her life. I got close to her, talked to her, touched her stayed just close enough to feel the warmth of her existence.

But no matter what I did, she never truly saw me.

And when she finally did when she humiliated me, destroyed me. I knew one thing.

She would regret it.

Because I might have been nothing to her then.

But now?

Now, I am the monster she can't escape.

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