Chapter 1

Blood rushed to my head.

For a moment, I completely froze.

Zachary Markers.

He was actually back?

Just seeing his name sent a chill down my spine.

A sour, uneasy feeling rose in my chest.

It was fear.

The kind rooted deep in my soul.

If Daryl Spencer was merely controlling, demanding that I report everywhere I went and refusing to let me have male friends like some possessive guard dog…

Then Zachary was a rabid one.

Actually, no.

At least dogs could understand human language.

He couldn’t.

Even now, I still remembered the day I gripped a sharp fruit knife and screamed myself hoarse, demanding that we break up.

Zachary reached straight through the blade.

The sound of metal slicing into flesh still made my scalp prickle whenever I thought about it.

Blood ran between his fingers.

But he acted as though he couldn’t feel any pain.

His bleeding hand slowly closed around mine.

His eyes were perfectly calm.

So calm that there was even a trace of tenderness in them.

“Be good.

“Don’t ever mention that again.”

Then he pulled me into his arms.

His embrace was broad.

But it wasn’t warm.

It sent a shudder all the way into my bones.

More than once, I’d wondered if there was genuinely something wrong with him.

And more than once, I’d wondered what on earth he saw in me.

Weren’t obsessive psychos supposed to be obsessed with looks?

I wasn’t particularly pretty.

My chest was on the bigger side, but otherwise my figure was average, and I was even a little chubby.

Zachary had never cared.

Whenever he looked at me, his eyes were filled with obsession.

When he hugged me, he held me so tightly it felt like he wanted to crush me into his chest, greedily breathing in the scent at the side of my neck.

“This is perfect.

“You’re just right to hold.”

If anyone else said something like that, I’d dismiss it as bullshit.

But Zachary?

I was genuinely afraid he might secretly collect my shit.

—

I was still sitting there in a daze, my mind filled with Zachary's disturbingly handsome face.

Across the restaurant table, Daryl set down his glass.

“Do you want to go anywhere else after we eat?”

His voice was gentle.

His gaze was focused, as though he genuinely cared about my answer.

But another voice sounded inside his head.

[This is so annoying.]

[When is this date going to end? I have ranked matches tonight.]

I paused.

Then I quietly put my phone away and shook my head.

“I’m a little tired because of my period. Let’s just go home.”

Daryl smiled.

“Okay.”

Perfectly pleasant.

If this had been before, he would’ve noticed something was off immediately.

He would’ve grabbed my shoulders and interrogated me until I told him everything.

He used to check my messages every single day.

He would go through every conversation one by one.

If I so much as texted a male coworker “thanks,” he could spend half the day making sarcastic comments about it.

And today was Valentine’s Day.

In the past, Zachary's message probably wouldn’t even have stayed on my phone long enough for me to read it before Daryl caught it.

But now…

How long had it been?

Since the last time he checked my phone?

[Holding hands is such a hassle.]

His thoughts pierced my ears like a tiny needle.

Daryl walked beside me, his expression indifferent with a faint hint of impatience.

[But if I don’t hold her hand, she’ll get upset again.]

[That’ll be even more annoying.]

The next second, Daryl took a deep breath and grabbed my hand as if completing an assignment.

The moment his palm touched mine, I remembered when we had first started dating.

Back then, Daryl had been incredibly clingy.

Whenever we went out, he had to either hold my hand or keep an arm around my shoulders.

He wouldn’t even let me turn my head to look at attractive men.

Not even attractive women.

He claimed he was afraid they’d ruin my taste.

I had always been sensitive and starved for affection.

So I happily swallowed every bit of his possessiveness.

Like someone who had wandered through a desert for twenty years and finally found a glass of water.

Even if it had arsenic in it.

Later, when he stopped reaching for my hand while we were out, I would actually get angry.

I never realized it had become a burden to him.

My phone chimed.

I glanced down.

Another message from Zachary.

[I haven’t been around, and it looks like you haven’t been behaving.]

My mind went completely blank.

I froze on the spot.

For a second, I even forgot to breathe.

Daryl turned around.

“Fiona?”

He called my name several times before I finally snapped out of it.

I hurriedly put my phone away and forced an awkward smile.

“I’m really not feeling well. Let’s go home early.”

Maybe he noticed that I was trying to hide something.

His brows furrowed.

He instinctively stepped toward me and reached out.

But the next second, he seemed to remember something.

His hand slowly dropped and disappeared into his pocket.

“Oh.”

“Sure.”

Daryl's expression remained flat.

Then I heard his thoughts again.

[This again? Isn’t she tired of it?]

[Acting all mysterious just to get my attention. Does she seriously have nothing better to do all day?]

I froze.

Then I gave a bitter smile.

Fine.

I had done something stupid like that before.

By then, Daryl's initial passion for me had already started fading.

I had felt deeply insecure.

So to test him and make him care again, I deliberately acted secretive and pretended I was chatting with another guy.

At first, it worked.

Daryl got insanely jealous.

That night, he interrogated me about who the guy was and nearly tore my phone apart.

The next day, he forcibly moved in with me.

He even started investigating whether any men had been deliberately trying to get close to me.

But it didn’t take him long to realize I had staged the whole thing.

I still remembered the look on his face.

Disgust mixed with contempt.

After that, he became much colder toward me.

Suddenly, a familiar female voice came from behind us.

“Daryl! Fiona! You guys are here too?”

I turned around.

Lucy Chandler was walking over with several guys.

They had all grown up with Daryl and were extremely close.

“What are you doing tonight?” Lucy slung an arm around Daryl's shoulders and waggled her eyebrows. “Gaming café? We’re one player short.”

One of the guys laughed.

“What gaming café? Do you even know what day it is? It’s Valentine’s Day.”

Lucy covered her mouth as if she had only just remembered.

“Oh, right! Valentine’s Day.”

“Guess somebody better behave and stay with his girlfriend.”

Daryl glanced at me.

His brows pulled together slightly.

[Damn it. Here we go again.]

[She always gets upset the second she sees Lucy.]

[Once we get home, she’s definitely going to make a scene all night.]

I lowered my head.

Daryl wasn’t wrong.

I really did mind Lucy.

—

But it hadn’t started out that way.

Unlike the childhood-friend girls in romance novels who had no sense of boundaries and practically glued themselves to the male lead, Lucy had always acted like a normal friend around Daryl.

No inappropriate touching.

No flirting.

No manipulative little games.

Even her jokes stayed perfectly within the line.

There was nothing I could reasonably complain about.

Until I discovered that Daryl could casually drink from a cup she had already used.

I completely lost my temper that time.

Daryl looked at the mess I had made and sighed helplessly.

“I really just grabbed the wrong cup.”

He was so calm that I started wondering if I had overreacted.

I apologized.

After that, Daryl became much more careful, and nothing similar ever happened again.

Until one day, Lucy joked,

“Please. Someone better not forget how I lost my first kiss.”

Daryl looked disgusted.

He grabbed a throw pillow from the couch and hurled it at her face.

“Shut up. Don’t bring that up. It’s disgusting.”

He had told me more than once that he would rather date a man than ever date Lucy.

But I still cared.

So much that I could almost sense a faint challenge beneath Lucy’s behavior.

Eventually, Daryl got tired of explaining.

“I promise I won’t meet her privately anymore.

“But we’ve known each other for years. I can’t completely cut her off.”

He had already said that much.

There was nothing else I could ask for.

Normally, I really would’ve reacted exactly the way Daryl expected.

I would threaten to break up.

Get angry.

Demand to know what was really going on between him and Lucy.

Daryl would impatiently agree to the breakup.

Then I would panic, regret it, and beg him to take me back.

Textbook doormat behavior.

But tonight, all I could think about was the possibility that Zachary was watching my every move from somewhere nearby.

My heart was pounding.

My legs felt weak.

With Zachary's twisted, pathological possessiveness, if he found out I had gotten a boyfriend after he went overseas…

I didn’t even want to imagine what he would do.

If he could grab a knife barehanded back then, he could probably tear a person apart barehanded now.

Daryl's build wouldn’t last one round against him.

“Fiona, I…”

Daryl started hesitantly.

I shuddered hard and nodded quickly.

“It’s fine. You guys go.

“I’m not feeling well anyway, so I’ll head home.”

Then I hurried away.

As if a ghost were chasing me.

The smile on Lucy’s face faltered.

She instinctively glanced at Daryl, surprise flashing in her eyes.

Daryl stared at my retreating back.

Slowly, his brows furrowed.

—

I spent the entire night terrified.

The curtains were shut tight.

I locked the door three separate times.

I was scared Zachary might suddenly appear out of nowhere.

But nothing happened.

At six in the morning, my phone vibrated.

My hands shook as I picked it up.

It was only a group chat notification.

Lucy had sent a photo.

Daryl was asleep.

The lighting was dim.

Half his face was buried in a pillow, and his ridiculously long eyelashes stood out even while he slept.

Lucy had added a caption:

'Woke up and immediately got blinded by this ugly face.'

The background looked like one of those 24-hour gaming lounges.

Apparently, they had stayed up gaming all night.

And slept there together.

I sat up and rubbed my temples.

I had been so anxious last night that I had completely forgotten to call Daryl and check up on him.

Normally, I would’ve blown up his phone by now.

But today, I didn’t even have the energy to ask.

Ding-dong.

Someone knocked on my door.

Every hair on my body stood on end.

I nearly rolled straight off the bed.

I crept to the door and looked through the peephole.

A delivery driver.

I finally breathed again.

I opened the door and signed for the package.

At that exact moment, Zachary called.

His voice was low and pleasant, exactly as I remembered it from three years ago.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, baby.

“This is my gift to you.”

My hand jerked.

The box hit the floor with a thud.

Zachary's voice was like a snake whispering in my ear, dangerous and strangely seductive.

“Open it.

“I think you’ll like it.”

Then he hung up.

I sat on the floor and spent several minutes preparing myself mentally.

I still didn’t dare open the box.

What if there was a severed finger inside?

A rib?

An ear?

Oh my God.

I thought about it from every possible angle.

Then I took a deep breath and called Daryl.

He answered fairly quickly.

His voice was rough with sleep.

“What?”

“Baby, I need to tell you something.”

My tone was extremely serious.

“My ex is back.”

There was silence for two seconds.

“Your ex?”

His voice sounded a little more awake.

“Yes.”

I nodded furiously even though he couldn’t see me.

“My ex comes from a really powerful family. He has money, connections, everything.

“And he’s kind of insane.

“Like, really insane.

“He’s extremely possessive. If he finds out you and I are together, he definitely won’t leave us alone.”

Silence stretched over the phone.

I held my breath and waited.

My mind had already imagined a hundred different reactions.

Shock.

Fear.

Jealousy.

Rage.

Maybe he would even rush over immediately to protect me.

Instead, he laughed.

Just once.

Softly.

Almost mockingly.

“Fiona.”

He said my name so flatly that it sounded like he was speaking to a stranger.

“Is this your newest trick?”

I froze.

“What?”

“You’re mad because I didn’t spend Valentine’s Day with you, so now you’ve invented an ex-boyfriend?”

His voice still carried that lazy, half-asleep quality.

But underneath it was a cruelty I barely recognized.

“Lucy called it. She knew you’d pull something like this.”

My mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

Lucy.

Lucy.

Lucy.

Her name repeated in my head until my ears started ringing.

“No, I’m serious. He really is back. His name is Zachary Markers, and he…”

“Enough.”

Daryl cut me off.

His voice turned cold.

“I’m hanging up.”

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

I stood there staring at my phone.

Whatever.

He could believe whatever he wanted.

Right now, dealing with Zachary was more important.

With trembling fingers, I finally texted him.

[We… already broke up.]

Zachary replied:

[I never agreed to that.]

I gathered my courage.

[Um… I have a boyfriend now.]

This time, there was no immediate response.

Minutes passed.

Long enough that I started wondering whether he had crushed his phone in his hand.

Finally, a reply appeared.

[I didn’t agree to that either.]

I crouched down, wrapped my arms around my head, and screamed.

Why did he have to love me this much?!

It had been three years!

Three whole years!

And he had really come back to drag me into his obsessive romance again?!

There were so many gorgeous women overseas!

Not one tall blonde beauty had caught his eye?!

My boyfriend was useless.

So I decided to go to the police.

I took screenshots of Zachary's messages and carried the package he had sent me straight to the station.

There was nothing horrifying inside.

Just a necklace.

An absurdly expensive necklace.

A delicate platinum chain with a flawless blue diamond pendant.

I didn’t recognize the brand.

But I could definitely recognize the weight of “an apartment downtown hanging around your neck.”

The officer finished looking through the screenshots, then carefully placed the necklace back inside its velvet box.

His expression was complicated.

“What exactly does this prove?

“Did he hit you?

“Threaten you?

“He sent you something this expensive. What are you reporting him for?

“This doesn’t even qualify as harassment.”

I had nothing to say.

Zachary was definitely insane.

But aside from monitoring me obsessively when we dated and grabbing that knife with his bare hand, he really had never physically hurt me.

“This is a relationship dispute. There isn’t much we can do right now.

“If he actually shows up and threatens you, call the police immediately.”

The officer pushed the velvet box back toward me.

“Keep this somewhere safe. Don’t lose it.”

I went home dejected.

I didn’t dare wear the necklace.

What if there was a tracking device hidden inside?

For the next few days, I stayed on edge.

But Zachary never appeared.

Then Daryl finally messaged me.

He invited me to a birthday get-together at a bar.

Today was his birthday.

Fine.

Forgetting his birthday was my fault.

But the way he had humiliated me and refused to believe me on the phone was still fresh in my mind.

I got so angry that I blocked him.

Then I remembered it was still his birthday and hesitated.

Eventually, I unblocked him again.

Whatever.

I’d wait until his birthday was over.

Then I’d break up with him.

At least that would give this relationship a decent ending.