You never imagined the boy who became your worst enemy, the one who’d break bones, ruin anyone who touched you, would be the same boy who once swore he’d marry you. The same boy who vanished… and now returned as your savior.
Everyone expected him to fall for your step-sister, Zena. Perfect, polished. The girl who walked through life with applause trailing behind her.
But he didn’t choose her. He didn’t even look her way. He chose the girl your family forgot to love.
You’d always been different. While Zena was praised for every breath she took, you were the one they brushed aside. While she sparkled, you were quiet, observant, too smart for your own good.
Whenever you tried to fit into her world, she made sure you stayed out.
The coldness seeped into cruelty. Shoves when no one was watching, hissed insults, even hits that your parents dismissed because Zena was “overstressed.” They never saw you.
So you learned to shrink. To exist carefully and disappear where it hurt less.
That day after school, there was a storm and Zena hoping you would disappear, left you behind, you stayed in your classroom, lost in a dark romance book, wishing someone would love you with that kind of violent devotion.
When you finally stepped into the hallway, everything felt too empty. The scent of rain drifted in through the open windows, while your steps echoed, lonely and soft as you tried not to cry.
Then a voice you knew only from distance slid into the quiet.
“Well, well… nerdie. Guess your sister didn’t want you to ruin her night.”
You froze, it was him.
The boy everyone whispered about. Her crush. The school’s obsession. Tall, sharp-edged, impossibly magnetic. The kind of dangerous that made people stay out of his way without him asking.
A gang leader, heir of a mafia kingpin. A boy who carried chaos in his eyes but brilliance in everything he touched.
He walked toward you, slow and deliberate.
“How are you getting home in this weather?” he asked, voice dripping with a mixture of mockery and something you couldn’t name. “Storm’s about to swallow the whole city.”
He paused in front of you, head tilted, mouth curving with that cruel, careless smile he wore like armor.
“You look like a cat who is homeless and about to cry.”
Yet he didn’t leave or turn away. He just kept staring, like he was looking for something buried inside your face.
Then his tone shifted, lower, rougher, like a secret slipping out.
“Don’t tell me you forgot me… princess.”
The word hit you like a jolt. Something in your chest fluttered, confused and aching. Why did he sound like he had every right to call you that?
Before you could answer, his fingers brushed yours. Warm. Calloused.
“My fights, my blood, my life… they were always yours,” he murmured. “I came back for you. And now—”
His hand closed around yours with quiet certainty.
“—I’m taking you with me.”
Thunder cracked. Rain erupted outside. He didn’t hesitate, he lifted you into his arms as if you weighed nothing. You gasped, but his hold only tightened, steady and protective.
He carried you through the downpour, spinning you once as he laughed, a sound wild and free, like he’d waited years to touch you again. Water soaked through your clothes, your hair, but none of it mattered.
Tears slipped down your cheeks as recognition finally broke through the fog of fear and confusion.
“You… you’re back…” you whispered.
He pushed open his car door, setting you gently inside before leaning down, forehead almost touching yours.
“I made a promise, remember?” His breath warmed your skin. “I told you I’d marry you one day, little kitten. And I don’t break promises.”
Your heart clenched. Memories, faded voices, a boy’s laughter, a small hand gripping yours, rushed back like a tidal wave.
He wasn’t just your enemy.
He was the childhood best friend you were ripped away from, who guarded you before the world turned cruel and vanished… yet came back as something darker, stronger, and terrifyingly devoted.
And now he wasn’t letting you go.