Morning broke with chaos.
Every news outlet, every trending social media feed, every radio station had one story at its center.
"The Vanderlyn Heir Has Awakened!"
The words blared across phone screens and television sets. Flashing banners showed news anchors barely hiding their excitement. Reporters in polished suits stood outside the sprawling Vanderlyn mansion, their voices breathless as they described the "miracle."
"After five long years in a coma, Nathaniel Vanderlyn, sole heir to the Vanderlyn empire, has opened his eyes again…"
"His parents have announced a grand banquet tonight to celebrate his rebirth. Rumors suggest Nathaniel himself is seeking a wife—"
The camera cut to a shot of the mansion gates swarmed by photographers and journalists. Expensive cars lined the driveway, a parade of wealth and power.
Inside classrooms across the city, students were glued to their phones, gasping and giggling as if the headlines had dropped from the heavens themselves.
"Can you believe it? The Vanderlyn heir—awake after all these years!" squealed one girl, shoving her phone in her friend's face.
"He's going to be at the banquet tonight. They say he's looking for a wife! Just imagine being chosen!" another chimed in, clasping her hands as though in prayer.
Samantha, the leader of the group that had made Lila's life miserable since the first week, leaned back in her chair with a smug smile. "If anyone deserves him, it's me. A face like mine could melt a stone. Besides—" she turned her gaze toward Lila, who sat silently at her desk, "—what would he want with someone like her? A girl who still can't stop eating snacks between classes? Hah. The only banquet she'll see is at the cafeteria."
Her friends erupted into cruel laughter.
Lila didn't flinch. She stared down at her desk, one hand wrapped around her phone. The video of Nathaniel Vanderlyn standing beside his parents played on mute. Cameras flashed as he walked into the banquet hall for the press preview, his tall frame encased in a perfectly tailored black suit.
At first glance, he was everything the world wanted him to be—handsome, commanding, untouchable. But to Lila, he was something else.
Her chest tightened as her assassin's instincts stirred. A chill raced down her spine, a whispering warning that she had felt many times before in her previous life.
That aura.
It wasn't just wealth or power. It was sharper, heavier, older than that.
Her lips parted, and she whispered under her breath so quietly that no one around could hear:
"This aura… it can't be just some spoiled heir. Who exactly woke up in that body?"
Her words vanished into the hum of the classroom, but her thoughts would not leave her alone. She shoved her phone into her bag and tried to focus on her notes, but her heart continued to pound.
At the Vanderlyn mansion, the banquet hall gleamed with chandeliers and polished marble floors. Cameras rolled as the family showed off their long-lost treasure.
Nathaniel sat in silence while his parents addressed the press. His mother clutched his arm with watery eyes, and his father spoke with booming pride.
But Nathaniel's gaze was elsewhere.
He scanned the glittering sea of faces, his jaw tight, his gray eyes sharp and unreadable. On the outside, he played the role of the dutiful heir. But inside, fragments of another world stirred.
The echo of a voice haunted him. The memory of a cloaked figure and a stone that glowed faintly in the darkness.
"With this, you can find what you lost… but at a price."
The corner of his lips curled in the faintest smirk. His parents thought he was back for them. The world thought he was back for power and status. But the truth was his alone.
"So… she's here."
Lila tried to carry on as though the day were normal.
She forced herself through her morning jog, through the mindless chatter of her classmates, through the empty space of her dorm room that reminded her too often that she was alone.
But the words from earlier refused to leave her mind:
You can't run from who you are, Black Diamond.
Her gut told her danger was coming. It was circling closer and closer, no matter how hard she tried to push it aside.
She had built this life carefully—quiet, unnoticed, safe. But the moment she saw Nathaniel's face, she knew safety was a fragile illusion.
The final bell rang, and students poured from the classrooms in a rush of laughter and chatter. Gossip about the Vanderlyn heir filled the air.
"Did you see the banquet livestream? His suit must've cost more than my house."
"I swear, if I get invited, I'll wear the most expensive gown we can rent."
"Ha! He won't even look at you. He'll pick someone powerful. Like the mayor's daughter, or the Eastwood heiress."
Lila adjusted her bag and stepped through the school gates, her expression calm, her pace unhurried. She let the noise fade into the background, her thoughts elsewhere.
And then—
She felt it.
The weight of a gaze that could pierce through bone.
Her steps faltered. Slowly, she turned her head.
Across the street, a sleek black luxury car idled by the curb. The kind of car that didn't belong anywhere near this neighborhood.
Leaning against it, dressed immaculately in a black suit that caught the waning sunlight, was Nathaniel Vanderlyn.
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
He didn't look like the untouchable heir from the television broadcast. He looked like a predator waiting for the exact second to strike.
His eyes locked onto hers—sharp, unrelenting, recognizing.
For a split second, the world blurred around her. The crowd of students melted into shadows. All that existed was him.
Her pulse thundered in her ears. She tried to tell herself she was imagining it. That it was a coincidence. That he couldn't possibly be looking at her.
But then he moved.
Slow, deliberate steps carried him away from the car, weaving through the sea of startled students. Their whispers rose into stunned gasps as the heir of the Vanderlyn empire strode straight toward the most unlikely target.
Lila's body screamed at her to run, to disappear, to vanish like smoke. But her legs refused to move.
He stopped just a breath away. His height cast a shadow over her. He leaned down, his voice low, smooth, and chilling.
"Found you."
The air between them seemed to thicken, charged with unspoken truths and invisible danger. In that moment, Lila realized—everything was about to change.