Page 1 of Twisted Promise

Chapter One

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Anya

It was late October when Anya saw Alessio for the first time in six years.

He wasn’t hard to miss—he was taller, with broader shoulders and a tongue as sharp as ever. His back was to her, muscles tensed as the rising sun bled across the horizon. Even from a distance, the impatience in his body seemed to cut through the clammy morning fog.

Anya never thought she’d see him again after their breakup years ago, let alone on a reality TV love show. Alessio was the kind of man who wouldn’t linger an extra minute for journalists to finish their interviews after his archery victories.

A hobby, he’d say.It distracts me from you.

She never really knew what he meant by that.

As her gaze darted around the hall of the twenty-room, seventeen-balcony mansion, she spotted a camera at the far end, attached to the wall and aimed squarely at the corridor.

Realization hit her. She wasn’t supposed to be in this part of the house. Bad luck had led her straight to him.

The executive director ofFirst Love, Dearly Beloved, had envisioned the reality show as a live spectacle, and his intentions were obvious since his announcement six months earlier.

He scattered his net across multiple industries, eventually reeling in ten high-profile participants with impressive resumes and strong personalities. Alessio was one of them.

Meryl, Anya’s boss and close friend, was another. A polarizing lifestyle influencer, Meryl thrived on the love-hate attention her videos drew. It was precisely her dramatic flair that had secured her spot on the show.

As Meryl’s live-in assistant, Anya was relegated to the employee quarters on the opposite side of the mansion. Her work didn’t stop just because Meryl went on the show. Her sponsorships kept rolling in.

Yet somehow, here she was, face-to-face with a ghost from her past.

So, when Alessio caught her frozen in shock from the corner of his eyes, his attention completely withdrew from whoever was speaking to him.

The sky warmed with the hues of fluttering Valentine’s Day ribbons as the brisk dawn haze began to devour the remnants of the night.

However, not a hint of the scenic landscape could soften the unapologetically impassive look on his face. Very handsome… and extremely unfriendly.

His scrutiny flitted around every inch of Anya’s form, noting changes before finally locking onto her absentminded gaze. It was instinctual, the way something abysmal shifted in his eyes, and they held onto hers like the reincarnated souls of tragic lovers.

It wasn’t his first step toward her that snapped her out of the unpleasant reunion.

It was the glaring red dot on the wall camera that reminded her that they were live broadcasting with hundreds of thousandsof people watching, searching for anything to turn into dirt and make a mountain out of a molehill.

Anya turned on her heel and hurried back the way she came, the heat of his gaze burning into the back of her head. She hoped, fervently, that he wouldn’t follow. He could easily catch her if he wanted to. His stamina was honed from daily morning runs.

While his physique wasn’t comparable to those in sports demanding grueling workouts and restrictive diets, archery had sculpted him with a glorious frame—the perfect blend of strength and elegance.

But he was more notoriously known for his prickly temper, capable of stirring buzz just by breathing.

He was always the dark horse that crushed competitors and remained the brightest burn in the archery field.

Once she was far enough from the other side of the mansion, she made a beeline toward the production crew. They were gathered around monitors, watching every movement of the participants as the live broadcast unfolded.

The executive director glanced up, narrowing his deep-set eyes. Anya could already sense the gears turning in his head.

She nodded at him and hurried back to her room. It was nowhere near as fancy as the rooms the participants were given, but Anya was only here because Meryl stipulated it as the only condition when she joined the show.

Later, as Anya wrapped up the week’s work for Meryl, curiosity tugged at her resolve. She opened the show’s website to check whether the cameras had caught her with Alessio.

She had to admit the editors had done a stellar job, condensing the live feed into a shorter, more polished version for busy viewers like herself.

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