Chapter 1

Richard

“To Mr. Hawthorne!” someone shouted, raising a glass.

“To Mr. Hawthorne!”

The room erupted in applause.

I smiled, wrapping an arm around the beautiful woman beside him.

“I couldn’t have done any of this without all of you.”

More applause. More laughter. More cameras flashing.

Tonight was supposed to be the happiest night of my life.

Instead… It became the beginning of the end.

A waiter approached with a silver tray. “Mr. Hawthorne.”

I barely glanced at him. “Yes?”

“Someone asked me to deliver this to you personally.”

He offered me a matte-black envelope.

I frowned. “I wasn’t expecting anything.”

“I’m sorry, sir.” The waiter lowered his head. “I was instructed to deliver it directly into your hands.”

Before I could question him further, he disappeared into the crowd.

Strange.

I stared at the envelope. There was no name, no address. Nothing.

My fiancée laughed. “Probably another business invitation.”

I shrugged. “Probably.”

I slipped a finger beneath the flap and pulled out the contents.

A single black card; Nothing written on it. Only a cracked silver heart engraved in the center.

The color drained from my face.

The world around me stopped.

My fingers went numb and the champagne glass slipped from my hand.

It shattered across the marble floor.

The music stopped.

Hundreds of heads turned. “Richard?”

Silence swept through the ballroom.

“Richard?” My fiancée grabbed my arm. “What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t answer.

My hands trembled.

“No…” My whisper was barely audible. “No… no…”

My breathing turned uneven. “Impossible.”

This couldn’t be happening.

“Richard?” Someone called my name again. I didn’t hear them.

“Sir?” My lawyer appeared beside me.

I shoved the card into his hand.

My lawyer’s face immediately drained of color. “…No.”

My voice shook. “You know what this is?”

My lawyer swallowed hard. He looked around the ballroom before lowering his voice. “We have to leave.”

I turned abruptly to my fiancee “We’re leaving.”

“Leaving?” My fiancée asked. “The party just started.”

“I said we’re leaving.” My voice cracked.

As security rushed toward me, I looked around the ballroom.

Every smiling face suddenly looked suspicious, every waiter, every photographer, every guest.

One of them had delivered it. One of them belonged to The Black Veil.

And if the stories were true…it was already too late.

The ballroom dissolved into chaos.

“Call an ambulance!”

“Sir, are you feeling alright?”

“Cameras off! Turn those cameras off!”

I ignored them all. My gaze darted wildly across the room.

The orchestra had stopped playing.

Guests whispered among themselves, confused by the sudden panic.

My fiancée reached for my hand again. “Richard, you’re scaring me.”

I snatched my hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

She froze.

The words had come out harsher than I intended, but I couldn’t think straight.

How? How had they found him?

—

Outside the ballroom…

Rain fell softly against the marble steps, turning the polished stone into a mirror beneath the glow of the lights.

The waiter who had delivered the envelope slipped quietly through the staff entrance.

Paused beneath the awning and removed her white gloves. Then the bow tie, then the tailored black jacket.

Beneath it was a fitted black dress that had been hidden beneath the oversized uniform.

Finally, she reached up and peeled away the short dark wig that had concealed her identity.

A cascade of long, wavy ebony hair spilled over her shoulders, glistening beneath the rain-speckled lights.

The young “waiter” had never been a man at all.

A silver ring engraved with a cracked heart gleamed on her finger as she adjusted the sleeve of her dress.

Without a hint of urgency, she crossed the rain-soaked street.

A sleek black sedan waited at the curb, its engine humming quietly.

The rear passenger door swung open before she reached it.

She slid inside.

The door closed.

For a moment, only the sound of rain filled the silence.

Then a woman’s voice emerged from the darkness beside her.

“Was it delivered?”

“Yes.”

“And his reaction?”

The disguised woman allowed herself the faintest smile.

“He recognized it immediately.”

A brief silence followed.

Then the unseen woman spoke again. “Good.”

The woman in the black dress glanced down at the cracked-heart ring resting on her finger before curling her hand into a loose fist.

Outside, the rain continued to fall.

The sedan pulled away from the curb and disappeared into the night.

***

Jacqueline

I pulled open my locker and reached inside for my physics textbook.

“Come on… where did I put you?”

I moved my chemistry notebook aside, then my calculator, then the bag of gummy bears I’d been looking for since Monday.

Still no physics book. Great.

The morning hallway buzzed with conversations, laughter, and the occasional locker slamming shut.

Then, almost instantly, the atmosphere shifted.

Someone squealed.

“Oh my God… he’s coming.”

“I swear he’s even hotter today.”

“Do you think he’ll look this way?”

The excited whispers spread through the hallway like wildfire.

I didn’t need to ask who he was.

There was only one person who could cause this much chaos without saying a single word.

My heart skipped.

No. Not now.

Instinctively, I glanced down the hallway.

There he was.

Walking toward our corridor with two friends, his backpack slung lazily over one shoulder, completely unaware that half the female population of Westbridge Academy had forgotten how to breathe.

Girls straightened their skirts.

Some hurriedly fixed their hair using their phone screens.

Others pretended to be having interesting conversations, secretly hoping he’d look their way.

He never did.

Me? I did the exact opposite.

“Oh no…”

Before he could get any closer, I quickly stepped behind my open locker door, hoping the metal would hide me from view.

Bang!

The edge of the locker door smacked straight into my forehead

“Ow…”

I clamped both hands over my mouth to stop myself from yelping.

My glasses slipped down my nose. Perfect, just perfect

A few nearby students glanced in my direction.

I immediately lowered my head, pretending to be very interested in whatever was inside my locker.

Please…just keep walking. Please don’t look this way. Please don’t—

The footsteps passed.

Only then did I slowly peek around the edge of the locker door

He had already walked past.

“He didn’t see me…”

A tiny smile spread across my face. “Thank goodness.”

I quickly pushed my glasses back into place

“Embarrassing myself in front of the most popular boy in school would have been enough to make me transfer schools.” I muttered

Then again…he probably didn’t even know I existed.

For some reason…that thought hurt even more.

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

I closed my locker and adjusted the strap of my backpack over my shoulder.

“Jacqueline!”

I smiled despite myself. Only one person called my name with that much enthusiasm.

“You almost gave yourself a concussion again, didn’t you?”

I turned lazily

Claire stood there, trying—and failing—to hide her laughter.

“I did not.”

She tilted her head. “Really? Then what’s that?”

She pointed to my forehead.

My hand immediately flew to the sore spot. “…Nothing.”

“That’s a bump.”

“There isn’t.”

“There is.”

“There isn’t.”

“There is.”

I sighed dramatically. “You’re a terrible friend.”

“And you’re a terrible liar.”

She linked her arm through mine as we started walking toward class.

“So…”

I already knew that tone.

“…how many times have you updated it this week?”

I blinked innocently. “Updated what?”

She gave me a look. “Jacqueline.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Your file.” She kept talking “The one where you’ve practically documented his entire existence.”

I looked away.

She let out a dramatic sigh. “You’re unbelievable.”

“I prefer… dedicated.”

“You prefer obsessed.”

“I prefer prepared.”

She laughed so loudly that a few students turned to look at us.

“I swear, if the FBI ever needs information on that boy, they’ll just ask you.”

“I am not that bad.”

“Oh really?”

She began counting on her fingers. “You know his birthday.”

I stayed silent.

“His favorite color.”

Still silent.

“His shoe size.”

“…That one was an accident.”

“His football schedule.”

I ignored her.

“His coffee order.”

I kept walking.

“The route he walks to school.”

I pretended not to hear her.

“The songs on his playlist.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “When you list it like that…”

“When I list it like that, you sound like a stalker.”

“I am not a stalker!”

“You have a color-coded spreadsheet.”

I continue walking

“And a diary.”

I focused very hard on the hallway ahead.

“And three photo albums.”

I covered my face. “Claire…”

“What?”

“People can hear you.”

“Good.”

“They’re going to think I’m weird.”

She laughed. “Jacqueline, we’re way past that.”

I gasped. “I am perfectly normal.”

“You ain’t my love”

I stopped walking “Reduce your voice “

She lowered her voice dramatically. “And don’t think I forgot about the map.”

I gasped. “You went through my laptop?”

“I accidentally saw it.”

“You snooped.”

“I was saving you from yourself.”

I folded my arms. “I wasn’t stalking him.”

Claire smiled. “So what do you call secretly taking pictures of him?”

“…Research.”

She burst into laughter.

I couldn’t help laughing too.

Even though…deep down, everything she’d said was true.

I knew almost everything about the boy I had loved from afar.

Everything…except whether he’d ever notice a girl like me.