Prologue

The city never really sleeps. Not like the rest of us do, anyway. There’s a pulse to it, a hum that vibrates through its streets, through its towering buildings, even through the laughter spilling out of the doorways of those golden, untouchable mansions. From a distance, you could almost mistake it for something beautiful.

I know better now.

It was the summer when it all began — or ended, depending on how you look at it. A haze of cigarette smoke clung to every room, the sound of jazz bled through the walls, and the rich wore their silks and jewels like armour, pretending they were untouchable. But the truth is, the rot had been there long before I arrived.

I didn’t see it at first. How could I? I was new to this life, new to the money, the parties, the polished floors that gleamed like mirrors. Everything shimmered, like the air itself was made of champagne bubbles. It was easy to believe, for a moment, that nothing terrible could ever happen in a place like this.

But terrible things did happen. And they weren’t accidents.

There was a particular night when the city held its breath. One of those hot, restless nights when the moon hung low and heavy over the skyline, casting a pale light over the sprawling estates and narrow alleys. The air was thick, almost suffocating, and beneath the surface of it all, something dangerous waited to be unleashed.

I remember it too clearly, the way the music didn’t seem to stop, even after the first scream. People brushed it off at first, too drunk or too lost in their own pleasures to care. But when the doors burst open, and the smell of blood touched the edges of the laughter, the façade crumbled. The glamour shattered like glass.

That was the night Landon Kingsley lost everything. Not just his fortune or his reputation, but something deeper. Something that had kept him alive in that glittering, hollow world.

And it was the night I learned that no one, not even someone like Landon, can outrun their past forever.

He wasn’t like the others. Not really. He was magnetic, yes, and you couldn’t help but be drawn to him, but there was something fractured beneath that charm, something that made you want to look twice. He wasn’t born into this world of wealth and opulence, he had clawed his way into it. And he wore his success like armour, like it was the only thing keeping him from being swallowed whole by the city’s dark undercurrent.

I met him on a night not so different from that last one. I’d been in the city only a few months, still finding my feet, still trying to figure out where I belonged in a place that seemed so intent on consuming everything in its path.

A chance meeting, they’d call it. But nothing was ever ‘chance’ with Landon. Everything he did was with purpose, every smile, every glance, always a means to an end. I didn’t see that at first. All I saw was a man who seemed to hold the city in the palm of his hand, who could make even the stars seem dim next to the shine of his success.

And yet, there was something haunted in his eyes, a shadow that lingered there, just beneath the surface. A shadow I didn’t fully understand until it was too late.

It was Isabelle who brought the darkness into focus.

I saw her first, standing at the edge of one of his lavish parties, her pale dress shimmering under the lights, a glass of champagne poised delicately in her hand. She looked like she belonged there, like she’d been born into that world of wealth and grandeur, but the sadness in her eyes gave her away. She wasn’t like the others either.

She was trapped.

And Landon… he saw her as the key to everything he’d ever wanted, everything he thought would make him whole. But she was a dream built on shifting sands, and no matter how hard he tried to hold onto her, she slipped through his fingers.

It was his obsession with her that drove him to the edge, that led to the choices that would unravel everything.

And Victor... Victor was the match that ignited it all. He had power, the kind that came with family name and old money, but there was something darker about him, something violent that always simmered just beneath the surface. Where Landon’s charm was magnetic, Victor’s was oppressive. You could feel his presence long before he walked into a room, like a storm brewing on the horizon.

The tension between them, Landon and Victor… it was there from the beginning. A rivalry that went beyond money, beyond Isabelle. It was about control, about proving who held the real power in a world that pretended to be civil but was anything but.

When the blood was spilled that summer, it wasn’t just because of love, or jealousy, or even money. It was because the game they were playing was never about any of those things. It was about winning. At any cost.

The murder was inevitable. Looking back, I wonder why I didn’t see it sooner. Maybe I didn’t want to. Maybe none of us did.

But now, as the city continues to spin on without them, as the lights flicker and the music plays on, I’m left with the weight of it all — the things I saw, the things I knew but never said. And the things I’ll never forget.

Because in a place like this, the truth doesn’t stay buried for long. It always rises, like smoke from a fire, clinging to the air, reminding you that nothing, not even the most glittering dream, is safe from the darkness lurking beneath.