Chapter 1 Watched

• ADELINE’S POV
• They say there are three ways a human can react when faced with imminent danger. Your body either goes into fight, flight or freeze mode. Right now, I think my body chose the third option because it feels like I’m being watched, and I can’t move.
• I have always had very good instincts. Maybe it’s one of the side effects of majoring in psychology or maybe I just have a really good sixth sense, but one thing I know is that I am not crazy and I am sure as hell not delusional.
• I fell asleep on my couch tonight. My living room, lit up by only a few scented candles, begs for more exposure to light. I heard something move and when I looked out the transparent windows of my living room, I saw a shadow. My fault for forgetting to close the drapes before falling asleep.
• I’m a very light sleeper, so the smallest sounds take me out of any sort of slumber I might be in. And right now, I know I was being watched. I have no guards but I have a security system, so if anyone tried to break into my house, I would immediately be alerted.
• Liam, my best friend and I have taken tons of martial arts and karate classes and I know how to defend myself properly. I’m even better at fighting than Liam is and I already own several black belts. However, one can never tell due to my petite physique, which never seems to want to gain any muscle.
• I always lock my doors before sleeping and the transparent glass windows in my house are thick and unbreakable, so the only way whoever is watching me can get in, is if I let them. Even if they manage to get inside forcefully, they’ll only leave with a broken leg.
• “Alexa, turn the lights on.” I order my virtual assistant after getting over the wave of panic that left me frozen in place for a few seconds and the entire room is immediately illuminated.
• The first thing I do when I stand is close my drapes and rush upstairs to my security room. I check the footage from two hours ago and nothing pops up. Everything outside looks in place but when I check the live footage, I see something in front of my door that catches my eye.
• A flower. A chrysanthemum, to be exact. My lips become instantly dry and I am filled with unfiltered rage. There are only two people in the world who know what my favorite flower is. Liam James, my best friend, and Dain Mathews, my ex-boyfriend.
• It can’t be a coincidence that a random stranger just happened to know what my favorite flower was and left it on my doorstep and it can’t have been Liam either.
• So that just leaves Dain. That stupid fuck.
• We broke up two months ago, but he won’t stop ringing my phone and trying to get back together with me. The idiot cheated on me and I don’t know about other people, but cheating is just something that I do not tolerate.
• It’s someone looking you straight in the eye and deciding that you’re not worth the effort, respect and discipline it takes to be in a committed relationship and that is not something I forgive.
• This isn’t the first time Dain is leaving me flowers at unexpected times. He came to my office a week after our breakup unannounced with a bouquet of chrysanthemums, which is how I am certain that this is his doing.
• And Dain was one of the few people who knew where all my security cameras were stationed, so that’s how I can’t see any footage of anyone. He must have avoided them. But how did he get past the one right in front of my door? He must have thrown the flower from a distance.
• That’s the explanation I go with as I rush towards my room and grab my phone. I check the time and it’s currently five in the morning. Dain usually goes for his morning run at this time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stopped by to leave me flowers. I’m really going to give him a piece of my mind.
• I dial his number because even though I deleted it, my reliable brain refuses to forget. He answers after the third ring.
• “Hey Addie. Wow I…”
• I used to love it when he called me Addie, but right now, all it does is annoy me.
• “Did you come to my house this morning and leave a chrysanthemum at my doorstep?” I ask, cutting him off and going straight to the point.
• “Huh? What? No, I didn’t.” He says stuttering as if he lost his ability to speak. I roll my eyes and sigh deeply.
• “Are you lying?” I question him. He lied about cheating on me the first time I asked him about it and he still tried to lie even after he was caught red-handed in the act. Of course, I don’t trust him.
• “I don’t know what you’re talking about Addie. I haven’t been to your place.” He says with a serious tone and I go silent for a moment.
• “Just forget it.” I say.
• “Hey maybe we can meet up sometime and...” I hang up, cutting him off before he could finish that god awful sentence. He’s delusional and crazy if he thinks there will ever be an us again someday.
• But I have bigger problems than Dain right now. Someone came to my house and left a flower at my doorstep. My favorite flower. It definitely wasn’t Liam and Dain claims it wasn’t him.
• So, who the fuck was it?