Chapter 1 — The First Crack of Light Elara had always moved through the world like someone protecting a fragile glass heart. She loved quietly, observed closely, and felt deeply... too deeply sometimes in ways that left her carrying more emotions than her small frame seemed built for. Lagos was loud, restless, unpredictable, yet somehow she blended into it like a soft sigh swallowed by chaos. The day she met Adrian didn’t feel like fate at first. It felt like inconvenience. It rained not gently, but in heavy, unapologetic sheets. The kind of rain that forced strangers under one small shade, close enough to feel each other’s breath. The kind where your plans drowned before your eyes. Elara had been gripping her tote bag, frustrated, when a voice beside her said, "You can stay under my umbrella if you don’t mind walking with me." She looked up. Tall. Calm. Soft-eyed. He held his umbrella like he was offering shelter not just from the rain, but from the whole world. "Are you sure?" she asked, caught between politeness and the quiet pull in her chest. "Absolutely." His smile was warm the kind that touches the eyes. They walked together. Slow at first, then falling into an easy rhythm. She noticed he didn’t shift the umbrella away from her even once; instead, he tilted it slightly toward her side, letting the rain catch his shoulder. "I’m Adrian," he said. "Elara." "Beautiful name." Her heart reacted before she could stop it. They talked until the roads dried and the clouds cleared. And when he asked for her number, she hesitated not because she didn’t want to, but because she wanted it too much. Yet she gave it. Little did she know that this small moment sharing an umbrella with a stranger was the beginning of a love that would both heal and break her in the most unexpected ways.