Save me, My stranger

PROLOGUE:

The night air clung heavy against Haylee Moreno’s skin as she walked hurriedly down the quiet driveway of her family estate, her packed suitcase rattling behind her. Every step felt heavy, like her heart might leap out of her chest and betray her to the guards that secured the estate.

She didn’t look back. She couldn’t.

Her parents had gone on a weekend trip , hosting a charity event out of town, and this was her chance. If she hesitated, she knew she would lose her nerves.

Duke was waiting for her at the outskirts of town, paving restlessly for her to show up. Finally, Haylee appeared in the dark, walking towards him, her heart still racing.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked, searching her eyes.

She nodded, trembling but determined. “I want to be with you, even if it means giving up everything.”

He pulled her into his arms, kissed her passionately with a hunger that made her forget the world, and whispered against her lips; “Then you are mine now, mine forever.”

At the time, those words sounded like a promise.

As they drove out of the city in his dented black car, the glittering skyline receded in the distance. Haylee pressed her forehead against the cool glass, watching the world she had always known shrink into a memory.

The Morenos’ estate was more than a house, it was a mansion.

Cars slowed along the road just to catch a glimpse of it.

The mansion that whispered money could buy anything.

Inside, chandeliers glowed like captive stars, beautiful artwork adorned the wall, and the smell of freshness, warmth, and comfort filled the atmosphere.

Laughter spilled from the dining hall where the elite of the society came to dine and wine.

It was a kingdom , and Haylee was its princess.

She had grown up knowing she could have anything her heart desired; designer wear, luxury vacations, a future paved with fortune.

Gorgeous in the effortless way that came with good genes combined with expensive skincare, she stood tall, her long curly brown hair cascading down her back. Her bright green eyes sparkled with a hint of mischief, and her soft heart shaped face was framed by a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks. Yet, behind all the glamour, there was always an ache, a hunger.

Love.

Not the strategic , arranged kind her parents spoke of. Not the mergers disguised as marriages that they tried to push her into, with men who carried their family crest on their cufflinks. But the kind she had read about in books; reckless, consuming and forever.

Her parents didn’t understand.

To them marriage is a contract, a business, a secured future.

“Marriage isn’t about love, Haylee,” her father had told her more times than she could count, “it’s about alliances, about strengthening what we’ve built.”

“And about security,” her mother would add crisply, never one to soften the truth. “Feelings fade. Wealth will not.”

And so, at every gala, every dinner, she was paraded before, carefully hand-picked men. Polished, predictable, each one reciting scripted compliments, each one already knowing her net worth before they shook her hand.

Until the night she had met Duke.

He wasn’t of their world. That much was obvious from the moment their eyes met across the room. He was standing near the staff entrance, dressed plainly, leaning against the wall, unflinching, as if daring anyone to notice him. His black hair was cut short, framing a face with sharp jaws that seemed chiseled from stone. But it was his brown eyes that held her gaze, sharp and piercing in a way that unnerved her, but when he smiled, it was like fire sparking against ice.

For the first time, Haylee’s heart fluttered as though it had forgotten how to breathe.

He wasn’t introduced to her by her parents. He didn’t arrive in a luxury car or wear a family crest on his cufflinks.

He found her alone on the patio later that evening, clutching her glass of champagne, bored out of her mind.

“You don’t look like you are having fun,” he said, voice low, rough, dangerous and exciting all at once.

She startled, then narrowed her eyes.

“And you do?”

He let out a soft laugh, a sound that was far too warm for a stranger,

“Not really, but at least, I don’t pretend.”

Haylee laughed before she could hold herself. That laugh, that first spark, was the beginning of it all.

Duke was everything she had dreamed of.

He wasn’t intimidated by her or her family name. He didn’t treat her like a prize to be won. He spoke softly to get as if she were a woman and not an heiress. He told her stories of hardship, of growing up with nothing, of dreams that he couldn’t afford but wanted. His eyes blazed with hunger, not for just money or success, but for life itself.

She fell , and she fell hard.

Her parents, of course, were horrified.

“You can’t be serious, Haylee!” Her father hollered angrily the evening she had dared to mention Duke’s name at dinner. “He’s a nobody, with no career, no pedigree, and has nothing to offer you.” He only wants you for your riches.

Haylee’s face fell with disappointment. “He loves me! And I love him too, isn’t that what love should…?

“That’s not love,” her mother snapped sharply. “That’s delusion, he will drag you down, he will ruin you. All our years of building our fortune and giving you a good life, you want to throw it out to a nobody.”

But the more they pushed, the tighter he clung to him. Their warnings only sounded like chains, like proof that they would never allow her to choose for herself.

And so she chose him.

That night in the car, as Duke’s hand brushed hers on the gearshift, she told herself she was free. She told herself this was what real love was meant to feel like; wild, deviant, worth everything.

When they finally arrived hours later, the world looked different .

Gone were the manicured lawns, the scent of roses, the sweep of the glass mansion.

It was a small town, with dull or no paint on the building that surrounded it. The streets smelled of smoke and poverty.

Their new home was a dim apartment with thin walls and a creaky ceiling fan.

Haylee clutched her suitcase tighter, swallowing back the lump in her throat. Silk sheets and servants had vanished, replaced by dust and shadows.

Still, she whispered to herself: This is love. This is real. One day, they’ll see they were wrong, and we’ll go back, stronger than ever.

For now, she wrapped her arms around Duke, letting his warmth convince her of the story she wanted to believe.

She didn’t see, not yet, how quickly the fire would change.