Angelina’s eyes welled with tears, blurring the scene before her—but not enough to miss the devastating sight. Demir, her tormentor, her sworn enemy, stood over the flames devouring her dermatology report. Her final submission. Her only chance to pass the exam.

“No...” she breathed, the word caught somewhere between panic and heartbreak.

She lunged forward, fists pounding against his chest in blind desperation, her sobs tearing through the silence.

“You bastard! You monster! Why do you keep doing this to me? What have I ever done to deserve this?” Her voice cracked with every word, thick with pain.

Demir didn’t flinch.

He grabbed her wrist and in one swift movement, slammed her back against the wall, his hand wrapping around her throat—not enough to strangle, but enough to silence. The scorn in his green eyes was icy and sharp, a gaze she had known her entire life. But with each encounter, it grew colder... darker.

She flinched under his stare, choking slightly, the wall biting into her spine.

Demir’s grip didn’t loosen. Instead, he reached up with his free hand, snatched her glasses off, and tossed them across the floor. The fragile frames hit the ground with a soft clink.

He leaned in close, his breath brushing her ear, his voice a low growl.

“Next time... think twice before coming between me and my family.”

And just like that, he let go. Angelina gasped, sliding down the wall as her knees buckled. Demir crushed her glasses under his boot with a sickening crunch and walked away without a backward glance.

-------------------------

He hated her.

From the very first time he saw her.

Whenever she looks at him with those round glasses sliding down her nose, looking at him like she could see through him...he felt something twist inside his chest. A flicker. A crack. Something that had no place in his world.

So, he named it hate.

What else could it be?

Her hazel eyes weren’t just eyes—they were sharp questions he couldn’t answer. Her soft voice had the kind of calm that pissed him off, especially when it called him out in ways no one dared. And that damn curiosity of hers—the way she dug into things, always peeling back layers like she had a right to the truth—he despised it. At least, that’s what he told himself.

She was the kind of girl who should’ve blended into the background. Quiet. Bookish. Bubbly in that irritating way.

But she didn’t.

She stayed in his mind like a stain. A bright one.

And the more he tried to ignore her, the louder her presence got. Every laugh, every flick of her hair, every time she dared to look at him....he felt that same twist in his chest again. The kind that made him want to slam her against a wall and silence her in the dirtiest way.

Hate, he told himself.

But lately… the line between hate and something violent is beginning to blur. And he didn’t know what makes him see red...the fact that she is getting under his skin…

Or the possibility that she is already there.

It's the second generation book of the book Dark Devotion. I hope you will love it the way you love that one.