Chapter 1 Chapter 001

Vamica’s POV

The dress barely counted as a dress. Just a slip of silk that slid over my skin, clinging in places I wished it wouldn’t, showing more than it covered. Lila had shoved it at me once, laughing, calling it “practice.” On her, it would’ve looked effortless. On me, standing in front of my bedroom mirror tugging at the hem, it just looked wrong. It was too short.

The neckline fell between my breasts like it was begging for eyes to follow, the flimsy straps barely holding the whole thing together. Every shift of my body teased the hem higher, flashing the tops of my thighs, daring me to move wrong so it could bare me completely.

She’d begged me more than once to work at her parlor. Your hands are magic, Vami. You could make a fortune. I always laughed it off, said no, told her I’d just come watch, gossip, keep her company. Massage wasn’t my world, even if I might’ve fit into it better than I wanted to admit.

My phone buzzed on the desk.

I reached for it half-distracted, still tugging at the fabric, and froze.

“We regret to inform you…”

“Unfortunately, due to your medical history…”

“Your application has been declined….”

Those lines blurred until they weren’t sentences anymore, just heavy blows landing on me one after another.

I was rejected because I was a liability.

I slammed the laptop shut so hard the screen flashed, and my chest fired back with that sharp, traitorous thud…my constant reminder that I’m fragile, a risk. I pressed my palm over it and breathed slowly, waiting for the room to steady again.

If you’ve never lived with a heart that fights you at every turn, you can’t really get it. Mine’s stubborn, unpredictable. It was less a muscle, more like a broken clock that never ticks right. The doctors call it a ticking bomb. Their advice is always the same: avoid excitement, avoid stress… avoid living. They hand me pills and a medical file that looks like a story book filled with horror stories. I’ve learned to live in smallness because everything big seems dangerous.

Everyone else my age has a plan. A schedule. A career. Me? I have rejection emails and a pulse I’m supposed to guard like a fragile vase. The unfairness of it makes my throat hot.

I drifted to the mirror above my dresser because that’s what you do when the world pinches you—you look yourself in the eye and ask who did this to you. The face staring back was the one I’d been wearing for twenty-two years: brown hair that always falls into my eyes, a fringe that lives its own life, glasses that slide down my nose. Freckles sprinkled across my cheeks like someone gave up a mid-art project.

I was ordinary, small. A face that never got to be dramatic or had the pleasure of indulging in youthful exuberance…

“Cruel,” I whispered to the glass, my throat tight and my eyes stinging. The reflection staring back had nothing to say.

Memory after memory crowded me…Grandma dragging herself into the kitchen after twelve-hour shifts, her hands rough but gentle; nights curled in hospital rooms while machines beeped like a bad lullaby; chalky pills that never went down easy but were supposed to keep me alive. No sports. No boys. No late nights. Just rules… and Lila, my best friend’s laugh, always louder than mine, always trying to prove I wasn’t made of glass.

“Don’t collapse now,” I told my chest, trying to keep the sarcasm light. “Not today.”

The phone shattered the quiet, buzzing loud and urgent. Unknown number. My stomach sank before I even picked it up.

“Is this Vamica Daniels?” a voice asked, tone tight with urgency “This is the emergency department at City General. Your grandmother has been brought in after an accident. She’s unconscious. You need to come immediately.”

My knees nearly buckled. ‘What? No… she…’ The words fell apart in my mouth. My breath came in jagged scraps, and suddenly the world was too bright, too loud, closing in on me all at once.

“Miss,” the voice said, impatient now. “She’s in critical condition. Hurry.”

The line went dead.

I didn’t remember the walk. One second I was in my room; the next I was in the fluorescent hell of the ER, my chest burning, my legs moving on their own.

The hospital smelled like fear itself—sharp antiseptic, cold metal, and that faint, cloying sweetness that always seemed to mean loss was close by.

I found the doctor before he found me. His face was kind and efficient.

“Family of Mrs. Hale?” he asked.

“Yes.” My voice was a small, broken thing.

He pulled the curtain aside and there she was. Grandma. Lying so still it made my stomach drop, her skin almost the same color as the sheet. Tubes everywhere, bandages wrapping the body that had always felt unbreakable to me. Her eyelids flickered like she was trying to fight her way back, but they never opened. The monitor kept up a thin, steady beep that only made the silence worse. My legs went weak. All I wanted was to collapse beside her and scream until someone fixed this.

“She’s alive, but barely,” the doctor said. “Severe spinal injury, multiple fractures. She needs emergency surgery tonight—immediate intervention or she may not walk again. She may not… survive.”

The words fell like snow that kept coming. “Do it,” I begged. “Please. Whatever it takes.”

His mouth tightened. “There’s an advance payment of $3,000. Hospital policy…insurance or upfront.”

Money. Of course. The room tilted and I sank against the wall. My hands shook so hard I could barely dial.

I called Lila, my voice breaking before I even got the words out. She showed up in a rush—hair a mess, mascara smudged, panic clinging to her like smoke. We begged the nurses, pleaded with anyone who would listen. We made calls with shaking hands, flipped through contacts we hadn’t spoken to in years, checked our bank apps again and again like money might magically appear. Every answer was the same. Every door stayed shut. The night dragged on, and the gap between what the hospital demanded and what we had only grew wider.

Then Lila’s phone rang and she answered with three words I hate more than any: “It’s a client.” She glanced at the screen, lips pressing together, and then tried another line.

“Marcie?” she asked into the phone, voice quick. “Please…one of my regulars called for home service. You free?”

There was a pause long enough to be a verdict. “No can do—booked up all night, Lil. Sorry.” Lila’s shoulders drooped. She tried one more number, fingers trembling. “Tasha? Please. It’s—never mind.”

She turned to me, eyes wide and wet. “Vam, he calls once a year. He tips insane amounts. Home service only. If I go, I can cover the deposit. I’ll be back the minute I can.”

My pulse thudded like a hammer. “Go, then,” I said sharply.

Her phone buzzed again. She answered, voice softening, then her face went white and she hung up. “My dad’s back…drunk. Mom and Ben are trapped. I have to go. I can’t…” She looked at me like someone asking me to drop into a river and not drown. “You could go.”

“No.” The word came out before I could collect shame. “I can’t…Lila, I’m not…”

“You can.” She stepped close and gripped my arms like a lifeline. “Please. You know how to massage. I’ve told you a thousand times. Wear a mask. Don’t look at him. Just say hi, get the money…he’ll pay upfront. Take my phone….get the hospital details—take nothing else. Massage, collect, leave. Don’t have any funny ideas. He’s not your everyday man. Promise me?”

Her instructions came fast and practical, no room for moralizing. The way she said “get the hospital details” felt like a rope thrown into my drowning chest—immediate, mundane, life-saving. The rest felt like rules to keep me from becoming undone.

I swallowed. My heart skittered in my throat and I knew what desperation sounded like when it wasn’t my own. The image of Grandma lying pale and small on that stretcher hammered through me. “Fine,” I said, the word sounding strange.

Lila’s hands squeezed mine once, hard. “Mask on. Smile. Don’t meet his eyes. Text me as soon as you leave.”

The mansion the driver took me to belonged to a city I’d seen on postcards. Marble floors swallowed my footfalls. Chandeliers hung like arrested stars. The house smelled like citrus and oil and quiet wealth. Maids in muted silk fluttered past, polite and careful. The room I was led to was so large my breath felt too small inside it. On the bed lay an outrage of fabric—the dress Lila had lent me: silk thin as a dare.

The maid gave directions in a voice that made me feel like I was being put on display: wait here; change; don’t touch anything. She left, and for a moment I stood with my mouth open and the dress heavy in my hands.

I pulled the Arabian mask over my face because anonymity felt like armor. The silk slid over my shoulders and clung to places I’d never claimed. My skin prickled at the sensation—I was almost bare, like the dress knew what to show. I hardly recognized myself in the mirror: a stranger in a costume, a girl pretending to be someone who could sell an hour for a life.

A maid knocked and opened the door. “He’s ready,” she said, and left without another glance.

My throat tightened. I practiced smiling once, trembling. Lila’s words looped in my head like a command: Just say hi. He will send payment before you start. Don’t look him in the eyes. Take my phone. Massage and go. No funny ideas.

I steadied my hands and walked into the room.

When the door opened, he stood there—tall, dangerous, like he’d been carved straight out of danger. He looked at me once, and a cold, wild thrill ran through my body. The mask hid my face but not the way my breath hitched. The room seemed to narrow into him.