This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.

The first time I saw Evangeline Thorne, she was standing in the rain outside the old cathedral, her dark hair plastered against her pale skin like wet silk. She didn't run for cover like the others—she simply stood there, letting the storm wash over her as if she were seeking some kind of absolution. I watched from my car across the street, my hands gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles went white.

I had been following her for three weeks.

It started innocently enough, or at least that's what I told myself. I was researching locations for my latest architectural project when I first noticed her at the coffee shop on Elm Street. She sat alone at a corner table, reading a leather-bound book whose title I couldn't make out from my position near the window. Her fingers moved slowly as she turned each page, and something about the deliberate way she absorbed each word captivated me.

I found myself returning to that coffee shop day after day, always choosing a seat where I could observe her without being noticed. She came every Tuesday and Thursday at precisely two-thirty in the afternoon, ordered the same drink—a lavender latte with oat milk—and stayed for exactly one hour. Her routine was as beautiful as it was predictable.

My name is Adrian Blackwood, and I am not a man given to flights of fancy. I build structures that last for generations, design spaces that speak to the human soul through clean lines and purposeful form. I am methodical, logical, controlled. Or at least, I was before Evangeline.