CHAPTER 1: UNDER ARREST

The shrill wail of police sirens shattered the silence of the early morning.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Open the door! Police!”

Alisha jerked awake, her heart hammering violently against her ribs.

A sharp, throbbing pressure pulsed behind her eyes—a vicious, blinding headache that made her double over before she could even sit up. Her tongue felt heavy, coated in a bitter aftertaste that made her throat burn.

Champagne, she told herself desperately. It was just the champagne from last night. A terrible hangover.

But the frantic, heavy pounding at her door screamed that something far worse was happening.

She threw the covers aside and swung her legs over the bed. The room spun on its axis. Her feet touched the cold carpet, and her knees nearly buckled beneath her weight. She grabbed the edge of the nightstand to steady herself, knocking over a crystal glass that shattered on the hardwood floor.

She barely even heard it break.

What happened last night?

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Another violent impact shook the door, rattling the heavy brass locks against their frames.

“Miss Alisha Hart! Open the door immediately! We have a warrant!”

Dazed, her mind fighting through a thick wall of fog, she reached blindly for the white plush robe draped over the armchair. Her fingers trembled so violently she could barely function. She fumbled with the belt once, twice, before finally yanking it tight around her waist.

She rushed toward the entryway, her breath coming in shallow, frantic gasps.

“I’m coming! Please, I’m—”

Before her trembling hand could even grip the lock, the heavy wooden door gave way with a deafening crash.

Police officers flooded the suite.

Uniformed men and plainclothes detectives swarmed the small foyer, their boots loud against the pristine floor. Within seconds, they surrounded her, cutting off every exit, forming a wall around her as if she were a dangerous criminal who had spent years at the top of the nation's most wanted list.

One officer stepped forward, pulling a heavy leather badge from his coat and flashing it in her face.

“Miss Alisha Hart?”

“Y-Yes…” Her voice shook, practically swallowed by the cold terror gripping her chest. “What’s going on?”

“Miss Alisha Hart, you are under arrest.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“…What?”

Before her mind could even begin to process the words, a sharp tug pulled her arms behind her back. Cold, heavy steel clicked tightly around her wrists.

The metal bit into her skin.

“There has to be some mistake,” her voice cracked, high and desperate. “I… I didn’t do anything! You’ve got the wrong person!”

“Hands behind your back, Miss Hart.”

“Listen to me!” She turned her head, searching every stern face around her, desperate for someone to look at her like a human being, desperate for someone to step in and end the nightmare. “I haven’t left this room! I just woke up! Please!”

Nobody listened. They treated her like background noise.

They shoved her out into the grand hallway.

The corridor outside was already overflowing with onlookers.

“You have the right to remain silent…” The officer’s monotone voice droned on, reading her rights like a death sentence, but Alisha could barely hear him over the buzz of the crowd. Hotel guests hovered in their doorways, wrapped in silk robes, whispering behind cupped hands.

Staff members lined the walls, staring at her like she was a monster brought into the light.

Some stared with pity.

Others looked at her with open disgust.

Phones were already raised, pointed straight at her face. Camera flashes exploded like gunfire in the dim hallway lighting, blinding her for a split second at a time, leaving behind a bitter, suffocating wave of shame.

Every flash felt like a physical blow. She was being paraded like a criminal who had already been tried, convicted, and condemned.

“At least tell me why I’m being arrested,” she pleaded, twisting her torso toward the lead detective. “Please! You haven't even told me what I did!”

He didn't even grant her a glance.

“Please…” she whispered, her face going deathly pale as she caught the stares of the wealthy, influential people surrounding her. “Tell them to stop recording me. Please…”

The whispers drifted through the hallway, loud, sharp, and razor-edged.

“Isn’t that the girl from last night’s party?”

“I knew the moment I saw her that she didn't belong here.”

“I can’t believe someone could do something so wicked.”

“How could she do that to her own friend?”

“I knew she couldn’t stand Felicia.”

“She really is heartless.”

Then, one voice dropped lower than the rest, carrying a chilling weight that sent a ripple of silence through the immediate crowd:

“If Ace Romano hears about this…”

“…she’s as good as dead.”

The name meant nothing to Alisha. She had never heard it in her life. But the sudden, suffocating terror in the stranger's eyes made her stomach twist into sharp knots.

Her eyes desperately scanned the crowd, pleading for help, searching for a single familiar face. A single anchor.

Then she saw him.

Joe.

The man she loved. The man who had held her hand just hours ago and told her everything was going to be fine.

He was standing near the far end of the hallway, half-hidden behind a marble pillar.

Her eyes searched desperately for Joe. But when he finally shifted, he didn't step forward. He looked past her—at the wall, at the floor, anywhere but her eyes. He simply stood there, watching her as if she were a total stranger pulled off the street.

Joe… her mind screamed, her throat choked with tears. Say something. Please… Tell them they’re wrong. Tell them you know me. Tell them I was with you. Tell them I’m innocent!

He looked away completely.

It was worse than an accusation. It was the complete absence of love. The brutal silence between them cut deeper than the cold iron dragging at her wrists.

A soft, shuddering sob echoed from further down the corridor.

Felicia.

She was leaning heavily against a security guard, looking frail and completely destroyed. Mascara ran down her flushed cheeks in dark, messy streaks. Her eyes were swollen, red-rimmed, and the delicate veins in her neck strained with every breathless, hysterical cry.

“You ruined me!” Felicia screamed, her voice cracking as she pointed a shaking finger at Alisha. “What did I ever do to deserve this from you? If you hated me that much, you could’ve just said so! If you wanted what I had… you only had to ask!”

She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking violently as a fresh wave of tears broke out.

“You’ve destroyed my life, Alisha! You destroyed everything!”

Alisha stared at her in total, paralyzing disbelief.

“I…”

No words came out. Her voice completely failed her.

Panic clawed at her throat as she tried to make sense of the accusations. Felicia's crying, Joe's refusal to look at her, the police... none of it fit together. Was this a sick nightmare? A bizarre misunderstanding?

She searched Felicia’s face, waiting for the punchline, waiting for someone to clear the air. But as she watched the sharp, deliberate way the room moved around her, a cold, heavy truth slowly settled in her stomach.

This was no misunderstanding.

This wasn't a mistaken identity.

Someone had calculated, planned, and executed every single detail of this night to ruin her completely.

But why? What did they think she had done?

The police shoved her forward again, guiding her toward the bank of elevators. A mother pulled her young daughter back behind her skirt as Alisha passed, as if her disgrace were a contagious disease that could spread through the air.

Accusing fingers pointed. Cameras flashed continuously.

It was worse than a nightmare. In a nightmare, you eventually wake up.

As they finally reached the metal doors of the elevator, something caught Alisha’s eye on the patterned carpet floor.

Her phone.

It must have dropped out of her pocket when the police slammed through the room. The screen suddenly lit up with a bright blue glow, cutting through the shadows.

📱 Ella Calling…

For one desperate, instinctive second, Alisha reached her hands out toward it.

The officer handling her didn't say a word. He didn't even pause. He simply nudged the ringing phone away with the clean tip of his polished black shoe, kicking it under a decorative table.

The screen flickered. Darkened.

She never answers.

The heavy metal elevator doors slid shut with a low hum, sealing her inside the small, mirrored box with her captors.

If only all of this could be a dream.

Just twenty-four hours ago…

She had believed she was walking toward the happiest night of her life.

She had no idea…

It was the day everything she loved would be taken from her.

The Night Earlier…