had grown used to seeing a familiar guest every summer at her grandfather’s house—a well-dressed, quiet young man, her grandfather’s closest friend and most constant companion.

He used to play with her, watch her childish laughter as she jumped around the garden. He would hide his irritation whenever she gave her grandfather a drawing, a flower, or a piece of chocolate. She always gave everything to her grandfather—and him? Nothing.

He felt jealous. Yes, jealous... of the little girl who neither liked him nor wanted him near, who couldn’t even stand sitting beside him. He would go back to his house each time carrying a silent rage in his chest— Anger at a child who gave him nothing he craved… no closeness, no attention, not even a single, soft glance.

Then... he vanished for years. His work, his travels, his ventures took him far from them… far from her.

But when he returned— She was no longer a child.

She had turned eighteen: bright-faced, still playful, and beautiful in a way that unsettled the air around her. She resumed her habit of visiting her grandfather every summer—sitting by the window, laughing, reading, talking to the old man whose eyes were failing… and still, she avoided him, just as she always had.

And he—now thirty-eight—was no longer just the same man. He had become something else: deeper, quieter… and far more dangerous.

On her birthday, he handed her a small, elegant box. Inside was a white pearl necklace, adorned with delicate blue stones, shimmering like eyes stolen from a distant sea. “Your grandfather has received so much from you… Let this be mine,” he said, fastening it gently around her neck.

She smiled faintly and thanked him, never knowing… That the necklace was not just a gift.

Hidden inside was a microscopic camera and a precise location tracker. It streamed her every move to his private phone. Whenever she walked down a street, laughed with someone, or sat by the window—he would be watching. Unblinking. Always.

And Caetano whispered to himself, eyes locked on the screen, voice dark and low:

“I’m always the first to know where you go. I know every breath you take, every step, and every man who dares to look at you too long. If anyone tries to touch you… I’ll send him straight to the seventh hell without regret. You’re mine—whether you want to be or not. So how long will you keep treating me like a stranger? Do I need to kill your grandfather… just to have you for myself?”