The city was cloaked in a thick, uneasy quiet, the kind that made Bella’s skin crawl. Even the hum of the distant traffic felt threatening tonight, each passing car a reminder that she was no longer completely safe. She had thought Ethan’s presence would be enough—his watchful eyes, his protective stance—but a lingering tension wrapped around her like a suffocating blanket. Something was wrong.
Her apartment felt different tonight. Shadows stretched along the walls in unnatural ways, the faint flicker of streetlights turning every corner into a potential hiding place for someone lurking outside. Bella tried to ignore it, tried to focus on the mundane: emails, work documents, the hum of her laptop. But the feeling persisted—she wasn’t alone.
Her fingers grazed the small dagger Ethan had l
