Author's pov:
It was exactly 12:07 a.m. when Jay finally stepped through the front door.
The entire house was quiet.
Too quiet.
She dropped her bag onto the couch and stood there for a moment, staring at the floor.
It had been a long night.
The interview for the new drama had already drained most of her energy. Then she'd gone to meet Keifer.
And that meeting...
Jay's expression softened.
She couldn't stop thinking about the way Keifer had broken down in front of her. He had tried so hard to hide what he was feeling, but eventually, everything had become too much.
Jay had stayed.
She hadn't known what else to do.
Now she was home, exhausted, and somehow still had a mountain of work waiting for her.
She walked toward her desk.
Her laptop.
The interview footage.
A pile of documents.
Tomorrow's schedule.
Three unread emails.
And at least twenty notifications.
Jay sighed.
"Perfect."
She dropped into her chair and opened her laptop.
For the next forty minutes, she worked without stopping.
She reviewed clips from the interview, made notes about scenes that needed to be changed, answered a few messages, and checked the next day's schedule.
At 12:51 a.m., her phone vibrated.
Jay ignored it.
It vibrated again.
She frowned and picked it up.
Unknown Number.
There was a message.
«You shouldn't have gone to meet him tonight.»
Jay froze.
Her fingers stopped above the keyboard.
"What...?"
She reread it.
Maybe it was spam.
Maybe someone had the wrong number.
She was about to delete it when another message appeared.
«You were supposed to go home after the interview.»
Jay's stomach dropped.
That wasn't random.
Whoever sent this knew about the interview.
And they knew she had left afterward.
Jay sat up straight.
She typed:
Who are you?
She waited.
Nothing.
Then the typing bubble appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
Finally—
«Someone who knows more about you than you think.»
Jay's eyes narrowed.
"Cute."
She wasn't amused.
She took a screenshot of the conversation.
Then she noticed something.
The number wasn't saved.
But the message had arrived through an encrypted messaging app she barely used.
That meant whoever this was had deliberately chosen a way that would make tracing them harder.
Jay opened another screen and began checking the account details.
Nothing.
No profile picture.
No name.
No location.
No information.
Then her phone buzzed again.
This time, there was an image.
Jay opened it.
Her blood ran cold.
It was a photograph of the building where the interview had taken place.
Taken from across the street.
She zoomed in.
There she was.
Walking out of the building.
And behind her—
A black car.
Jay stared at the photograph.
The timestamp in the corner read 11:18 p.m.
Someone had been watching her.
She immediately locked the doors.
Then she looked back at her phone.
Another message appeared.
«Don't panic.»
Jay let out a humorless laugh.
"Too late."
Another message.
«We aren't interested in hurting you.»
She stared at the screen.
We?
Her fingers moved quickly.
Who is "we"?
The reply came almost instantly.
«You know our company.»
Jay's expression changed.
A company.
Her mind immediately ran through every rival organization she had heard about recently.
Then one name came to mind.
Blackempire.
She hadn't heard much about them directly.
Only rumors.
Business conflicts.
Executives who refused to speak publicly.
Deals that suddenly disappeared.
People who seemed to know things they shouldn't.
Jay opened her laptop again.
She searched the name.
The results were strangely limited.
Almost too limited.
She frowned.
There should have been more.
She searched again.
Different spelling.
Different keywords.
Nothing useful.
Then her phone vibrated.
«Stop searching.»
Jay's eyes widened.
She slowly looked at her laptop.
Then at her phone.
There's no way
The person wasn't just watching her.
They knew what she was doing right now.
Another message appeared.
«You were warned.»
Jay's heart began pounding.
Then—
A final message.
«Ask yourself why someone from Blackempire was at your interview tonight.»
Jay stared at the screen.
Her mind immediately returned to the interview.
The crowded room.
The cameras.
The staff.
The reporters.
The guests.
She suddenly remembered something.
There had been a man standing near the back of the room.
She hadn't paid attention to him.
Black suit.
Black tie.
No press badge.
And when Jay had looked at him earlier...
He had already been looking at her.
Her phone buzzed one last time.
«Now you remember.»
The screen went dark.
Jay didn't move.
For the first time that night, she wasn't thinking about the interview.
She wasn't thinking about tomorrow.
She wasn't even thinking about Keifer.
She was thinking about one question.
Who had been watching her?
And more importantly—
Why?