Chapter 1 - The Invisible Watcher
The glowing screen of Cole’s phone seemed to freeze the oxygen inside the tiny examination room.
I stared at the words illuminated in harsh white light.
Ask her what she saw outside your apartment the night she left.
Nobody in the world could have known what happened on that sidewalk.
I had never told my mother, I had never told my friends, and I had certainly never told Cole.
I simply packed my bags, left my key on the kitchen counter, and walked out of his life forever.
Cole looked up from the screen, his polished doctor persona completely fracturing.
His dark eyes searched my face for an answer I was too terrified to give.
He took a slow step toward me.
The anger that had been simmering between us evaporated into pure, chilling dread.
I felt a cold sweat break out across the back of my neck.
Whoever had sent that photo of my cousin Brandon was not just a jealous stranger.
It was someone who had been watching us closely for months.
Cole typed a frantic reply to the unknown number.
He demanded to know who was hiding behind the blank icon.
The three small dots appeared on the screen, indicating the stalker was typing back.
The silence in the room was so heavy I could hear my own heart hammering against my ribs.
My phone, tucked safely inside my purse, suddenly chimed with a harsh notification.
I reached in with trembling fingers and pulled it out.
It was a text message from the exact same unknown number.
I opened the message, and my stomach plummeted directly to the floor.
It was not a text message at all.
It was a high-resolution photograph.
The picture showed Cole and me standing right here in the exam room, looking down at his phone.
May you like
The angle was high, looking down from the ceiling directly above the examination chair.
Someone was recording us at this very second.
