CHAPTER 1

Angelina POV

"Angelina, get up!"

The high-pitched squeal pierced right through my heavy sleep. A groan rumbled in the back of my throat. Not wanting to open my eyes, I pulled the blanket tighter and decided to igno—

Splash.

"What the hell!" I gasped, shooting up in bed. Cold water dripped from my hair, soaking into my shirt and ruining my mattress. I blinked through the shock, glaring at my best friend. Lexi stood over me, an empty bucket in her hand and a triumphant smirk playing on her lips.

"Have you gone completely insane, Lexi?" I yelled, gesturing wildly at the wet disaster around me.

She just rolled her eyes. "Come on, Angel. You are the laziest person I know. I honestly wonder how I put up with you."

I narrowed my eyes at her. It was hard to stay mad at Lexi for long. She was the picture of perfection—vibrant green eyes, short brown curls framing her neck, and a toned gymnast's physique that she worked on every single day. She had the perfect life, too. Her parents owned a respected local publishing company, and she lived comfortably with them and her older brother, Josh. To me, she was the walking definition of flawless.

And me? Well, I had long, thick black hair that reached my waist, dark eyes, and a painfully average body.

"My annoying little friend," I grumbled, wiping a drop of water off my nose. "It's Sunday. Unlike you, I actually like to sleep in."

"No! You are not wasting today in bed, Angel," she declared, her smirk widening into a full grin. "Because we are going shopping."

I actually sat up a little straighter at that. My lingering annoyance vanished. If there was one thing we had in common despite our completely different personalities, it was our love for shopping.

Two hours later, we were surrounded by racks of clothes and discarded shoeboxes at the mall. Lexi had tried to pay for everything, but I flat-out refused to let her.

"Angel, look at that guy," Lexi whispered, leaning over the counter. "He is so hot."

I peeked past the display, took one look at the guy she was pointing at, and rolled my eyes.

Lexi gasped, looking genuinely horrified. "Wait, what? Are you insane? How can you roll your eyes at him?"

"Lexi, I have zero interest in drooling over a guy who wouldn't even acknowledge my existence," I said, leaning back. "Guys like that just want to play games until they get what they want, and then they leave. Whenever I get a boyfriend, he's going to be someone who actually respects me, not just some random hot guy."

"Angelina, you're eighteen. You can't just wait around for Prince Charming to magically walk up to you. You need to actually open your eyes and date."

Blah, blah, blah.

I tuned out the rest of her lecture, nodding along as if I was listening. I let my gaze drift out the large glass windows of the mall—and that was when I saw it.

A sleek black car was parked on the opposite side of the street.

My stomach gave a tight, uncomfortable lurch. I squeezed my eyes shut and exhaled a shaky breath, praying that when I opened them, the street would be empty. But the car was still there. I forced my gaze away, looking back at Lexi, who was now chattering about dolphins for some reason. I tried to push down the rising panic, but my eyes betrayed me, flicking back to the window.

It had been two weeks since I first noticed that car. It seemed to follow me everywhere—the mall, Lexi's house, even just around my own neighborhood. Sometimes it trailed me; other times, it was just parked nearby, watching.

"Lexi," I whispered, interrupting her. "That's the same car. The one I told you about a few days ago." I nodded toward the street.

She followed my gaze, narrowing her eyes at the vehicle for a second before her expression softened into a dismissive frown. "Angel, it's just in your head," she said, sounding entirely unconvinced. "Who on earth would be following you? You don't exactly have any mortal enemies."

She had a point. I didn't have any crazy ex-boyfriends or their jealous girlfriends out for my blood. I was practically invisible in high school, never got into fights, and certainly wasn't interesting enough to warrant a stalker.

"Let's just grab a bite," I said, eager to drop the subject and clear my head. "I'm starving."

"Me too," she agreed, instantly distracted. "My stomach is eating itself."

We crossed the street to the small café opposite the mall. As we ate, Lexi launched into a hilarious story about her parents catching her older brother naked with a girl in their living room. I forced myself to laugh and ask the right questions, but my mind kept drifting back to the street outside. Was I hallucinating? Or was someone actually out there, tracking my every move?

By the time we finished eating, the afternoon was slipping away. It was time to head home. My mom would be back from her shift at the clinic soon. Being a single parent was exhausting, and she worked relentlessly to keep a roof over our heads and pay for our education. My younger sister, Alex, and I tried to help out at the clinic on weekends to ease her burden. As for my dad... well, I preferred not to think about him at all.

"Bye, Lexi," I said as I climbed out of her car in front of my house. "Don't forget to pick me up for school tomorrow. My car is still dead."

"Sure thing, honey!" she called out. I stood on the sidewalk and watched her drive away until she disappeared around the corner.

I turned toward my house. Mom's car was already in the driveway, and a genuine smile touched my lips. I couldn't wait to spend some quiet time with her.

But as I turned to head up the walkway, something caught my eye. Halfway down the street, parked in the shadows of a large oak tree, was the same black car.

A sudden, irrational surge of adrenaline hit me. I needed to know. I needed to see if I was just losing my mind or if there was an actual person behind that tinted windshield. Ignoring every instinct that told me to go inside and lock the door, I started walking toward it.

I barely took five steps before the car's engine roared to life. The tires screeched against the asphalt as it took a sharp turn and sped off, vanishing down the street.

Strange.

I stood there for a moment, an uneasy chill crawling up my arms, before shrugging it off and heading inside.

The moment I opened the front door, the warm, comforting scent of baked cheese and tomato sauce hit me. Pizza.

"Hey, Mom," I called out, finding her in the kitchen and wrapping my arms around her.

She hugged me back, offering a tired but warm smile. "Hey, honey. How was shopping? Did you have fun?"

"Of course," I said cheerfully. "It'd be a cold day in hell before I hated shopping."

We sat down with our pizza, and I filled her in on my afternoon with Lexi—leaving out the part about the mysterious black car, of course. If she knew I thought I was being stalked, she would lock me in the house and ban me from leaving, which I definitely didn't want. I asked about her shift, but my heart sank when she casually mentioned picking up extra hours or maybe finding a second job.

"No," I said firmly, setting my crust down. "I am not letting you work yourself to death."

"I have to, sweetie," she sighed, rubbing her temples. "Who's going to look after Alex?"

My sister, Alex, was four years younger than me. She was a bright, energetic girl who brought so much life into our home. Right now, she was away on a two-week school study tour, leaving just Mom and me in the house.

"How is she doing?" I asked, trying to shift the mood.

"Oh, you know her. She's treating the whole study tour like a giant picnic," Mom chuckled.

I laughed with her, and the heavy atmosphere lifted a little. After dinner, we moved to the living room and watched TV together. The exhaustion of the day finally began to catch up with me, my eyelids growing heavy.

"Alright, Mom, I'm going to bed," I mumbled through a yawn. "Today was exhausting."

When she didn't answer, I glanced over. She had fallen fast asleep against the couch cushions.

I smiled softly, though it faded as I looked at the dark circles under her eyes. She carried too much weight on her shoulders. Working constantly to pay the bills was draining the life out of her. Even though she tried so hard to hide it, I knew she was deeply sad. I had heard her muffled sobs through her bedroom door at night, and it broke my heart that I couldn't just walk in and comfort her. She needed space, just like I did.

Alex and I had tried to convince her to start dating again, but she always shot the idea down. The two times she finally agreed to go out, the relationships hadn't even lasted a week. Alex thought it was because Mom was still in love with our father.

But I knew the real reason. I knew the dark truth behind those tired, sorrowful eyes. And I was forced to live with that secret, burying it deep so my little sister would never find out.

Moving quietly, I turned off the TV and draped a warm blanket over her shoulders. I tiptoed into the kitchen to wash the dishes, making sure not to clink the plates together. Once the house was quiet and clean, I finally headed to my room.

I took a quick, hot shower to wash off the day and crawled under my covers. The clock on my nightstand read 12:30 AM. I stared up at the dark ceiling, waiting for sleep to pull me under, but my mind kept drifting back to the street. To that car.

Why was it everywhere? Was my mind playing tricks on me, or was someone actually tracking me? Was I going to be kidnapped? Or worse, killed?

But as the dark thoughts spiraled, I realized something strange. I wasn't shivering in terror. The creeping dread that usually accompanies being stalked just... wasn't there.

Oh, God, I thought, pulling the duvet over my head. I really need to stop watching so many true crime shows.