Page 1 of Seeking Shadows

PROLOGUE

MIA

A few days ago…

My mind spinslike a broken merry-go-round when I close the bedroom door. Everything seems out of place—the walls, the furniture,me. What happened downstairs with Zane… or rather, Reign Mitchell, if that’s really his name—has left me with more questions than answers. I feel like a stranger inside my own body. As if I’m waking up from a dream that wasn’t just mine. As if everything I’ve experienced so far was a lie skillfully put together on top of my condition.

I climb the stairs, almost tripping over my own feet, my heart racing in a silent marathon inside my chest. And then, when I open the door, I see it.

A box.

Standing still. Right in the center of my bed. Like a forgotten gift from a past that insists on coming back.

I approach cautiously, frowning, feeling my stomach turn to stone. There’s a note. Handwritten. The handwriting is firm, direct.

Mia,

The papers you signed weren't what you planned. Inside the box you find your real phone. I saved it for you. Don't ask me why I'm helping you, I don't even know. But I hope you make them pay.

—The lawyer

The air leaves my lungs in a rush. Oh, lawyer. The same one who made me sign these documents. The same one who looked at me with that cold, calculating look. The same one who gave me a small, dry smile while I trembled, not understanding what I was doing.

My fingers tremble as they open the box. And there it is.

My phone.

I know it by the sunflower sticker on the back, by the chip on the side — and especially by what appears when the screen turns on.

A photo.

Of him.

Zane.

My Zane.

Sitting on the floor, focused, drawing on a piece of paper as if the outside world didn’t exist. His messy blond hair falling over his eyes, his mouth half open in a distracted smile. I took that picture. I remember. It was in Paris. He was trying to get a Notre-Dame-inspired tattoo, and I insisted he eat a baguette first. He laughed. He said I was insufferable—and then he kissed me like it was the last thing he’d ever do in his life.

I touch the screen.

It was real.

He was real.

It’s not a figment of my mind. It’s not a hallucination. It’s not a lie created by a woman who spent years telling me my mind was defective.

Paulina.

She lied to me.

She used my illness as a weapon, as a cage. She twisted every memory, every feeling, making me doubt myself. Made it seem like Zane was just a blur of delusion, a projection of an impossible desire. She ripped me away from him. And I believed it. Because when you grow up being treated like a mistake, you start to believe that everything you love is too.

My hands slid over other images. Lara, smiling beside me. Audrey rolling her eyes. Seth posing. And Kyle. Even Charlie. They all exist. I’m not crazy.

There were messages from Seth asking to meet—short, persistent, full of concern. I’d replied that I couldn’t. That I was gone. That I’d traveled with Zane. The most basic version of the truth, just enough to keep him from pushing harder.

Then I saw a photo Seth had sent me—just dropped into the chat with no explanation, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Laura stood next to him, slightly awkward but smiling in that quiet, curious way she always had, while Seth grinned like they were lifelong siblings. I hadn’t even known he’d met her, let alone that they got along. But of course he had—he’s Seth. He probably just showed up and made himself part of her world before she could overthink it.

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