All Chapters of The Pretender: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

‎Hindi ko alam kung ilang oras akong naglakad. By the time I finally stopped, the sun was already beginning to rise, painting the sky with soft shades of orange and pink that I barely noticed because my entire body was already exhausted.‎‎My feet hurt, my throat was dry, my hands were still trembling. And every few seconds, I found myself looking over my shoulder, half-expecting to see one of Logan's cars speeding toward me.‎‎Wala.‎‎Nothing.‎‎Just an empty road stretching behind me.‎‎I stood there for a while, trying to catch my breath while hugging the small bag against my chest. I could still feel the pain from earlier, and every time my body moved the wrong way, a sharp ache reminded me of what had happened.‎‎I closed my eyes.‎‎‘I'm out’‎‎I repeated those words inside my head.‎‎‘I'm out’‎‎But saying it didn't make me feel safe.‎‎Not yet.‎‎For years, I had dreamed about leaving that house. I imagined myself walking out with confidence, closing the door behind

‎I should have known that meeting Zayn Montero once would already be enough to ruin the peaceful morning I had promised myself. Not because he did anything particularly wrong.‎‎In fact, he had been kind.‎Too kind, actually.‎‎He bought me breakfast without asking for anything in return, helped me when I almost got hit by a motorcycle, and somehow managed to make me laugh when I had spent the past few months forgetting what it felt like to genuinely smile.‎‎The problem was that I couldn't understand why being around him felt so easy.‎‎After everything that happened with Logan, I had trained myself to be careful around men. I watched their hands. I listened to their voices. I paid attention to their expressions whenever they became annoyed. I learned to notice the smallest changes in their moods because those little changes used to determine whether my day would end peacefully or painfully. But with Zayn, I didn't feel the need to do any of that, and that scared me.‎"So, Aureli