ISADORA’S POV


    20 vouchers


    “So, once you’re in, you don’t need me to follow you?” Jose asked as we sat in his small rented apartment, the faint hum of the old ceiling fan filling the silence between us.


    We had been going over today’s n again and again, repeating each step until it felt branded into my mind. Today wasn’t like any other day. Today was the day. My pulse raced just thinking about it, the day I was finally going to get everything I needed, the leverage that would give me the power I’d been craving for years. By the time the sun set, Olivia would no longer matter. Her power, her games, her ability to stand between me and what I wanted they would all end. And I would be the one to make sure of it.


    “Yes,” I said firmly, fixing him with a sharp look. “You said thest time you went there, there was no security, right?”


    Jose leaned back in his chair, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as though reying the memory. “Yeah,” he confirmed after a pause.


    That detail has been my obsession these past few days. I had gone over it again and again, reying his words, checking and double–checking every possibility. Thest time Jose had gone to Olivia’s estate had been on a Thursday. And strangely enough, Thursdays seemed to be the anomaly in her schedule. For some reason, her security team always came inter than usual on that day. Not once, not twice, but consistently.


    I hadn’t taken Jose’s word for it alone. No, I couldn’t afford mistakes, not today. Since the moment Jose had given me the address of her house, I had shadowed her routines, memorized the patterns of every single person who worked for her. The gardener who came too early on Mondays, the driver who disappeared for an hour every Wednesday afternoon, the cook who slipped out to the markette on Fridays. Every single one of them had be part of my study, because one wrong move, one blind assumption, and the entire n would copse.


    But Thursday, that was the opening. That was the crack in her fortress. And today was Thursday. My chest tightened with something dangerously close to excitement.


    “This is it,” I whispered to myself more than to Jose. “My way in.”


    Today had to be perfect. Not good. Not almost. Perfect. There would be no second chance if I failed, no time to patch up mistakes. I had waited too long, suffered too much, lost too many opportunities to let things slip through my fingers again. Today I was going to execute everything wlessly, and when I was done, Olivia’s carefully constructed walls would crumble.


    “Alright then,” I said aloud, forcing my voice steady, hiding the tremor of anticipation that threatened to spill out. I straightened in my seat, feeling that familiar burn of determination in my chest. “Let’s go eat ourselves some leverage and get one step closer to what we both want.”


    Jose gave a small nod, though his eyes flickered with doubt. I ignored it. I couldn’t let his hesitation touch me.


    Just as I reached for my phone to check the time, it buzzed violently in my hand. Startled, I nced down at the screen. My breath caught. My heart stumbled in its rhythm beforeunching into a wild sprint. The name shing on the caller ID nearly made my knees buckle.


    Adrian.


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    35 vouchers


    For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. My hand shot up to cover my mouth as if I could hold in the gasp that threatened to escape. Adrian. After four long years of silence. Four years of being blocked, ignored, cut off as though I’d never meant anything to him. And now, not only had he unblocked me he was calling me.


    It was the most amazing, unexpected thing that had happened to me in years.


    I fumbled with the phone, afraid that if I hesitated for even a second, he would change his mind, hang up, and vanish back into that endless silence. With trembling fingers, I swiped to answer.


    “Isadora.”


    Just hearing my name in his voice sent a shiver down my spine. The sound rolled through me, warm and electrifying, dragging up memories I had tried to bury:ughter under the stars, whispered promises when we were too young to understand their weight, the way he used to say my name like it belonged only to him.


    “Hi, Adrian,” I managed, keeping my tone calm even as my insides quaked. “I’m d you finally decided to unblock me.”


    “Yeah,” he said softly. His voice carried a depth I hadn’t heard in years, a mixture of weariness and sincerity <i>that </i>made my chest ache. “I did that because we need to talk. About us. Dora… what you did to me four years ago hurt me, deeply. I thought I could never forgive you. But… you’re my friend. My mom cares about you so much, and so do I. So I’d like you toe to my ce. We can talk better in person than over the phone. There’s something important I want to tell you.”


    For a moment, I forgot how to stand. His words melted me, softening every hard edge I had built to survive these past years. It had been over a decade since Adrian had spoken to me with that kind of sweetness, that kind of tenderness. And now, he was inviting me to his home, reaching out, offering me a chance I thought had been gone forever.


    My heart screamed. Could this be it? Could this mean he was finally ready to forgive me? That he was ready to erase the invisible wall he had ced me behind and pull me out of this endless friendzone where I’d been trapped for so long?


    My lips parted, the urge <i>to </i>shout yes, to scream into the phone that I was on my way already, nearly overwhelming. But then, like a cold ssh of water, reality cut in.


    I had something important to do today. Something that couldn’t wait.


    Adrian was more important than anything, more important than air, than tomorrow but I couldn’t gamble with this. Olivia was still in the picture, still poisoning everything. If I didn’t take my chance today, I’d have to wait until next week, and who knew what Olivia would weave in that time? She was crafty, dangerous, capable of seducing Adrian all over again and snatching him back before I even had the chance to reim what was


    mine.


    No. I couldn’t let that happen.


    For now, Adrian would have to wait. He had already unblocked me, already called, already invited me. That was enough to hold onto. Tomorrow, when this is done, I will go to him. I would show up at his house, and it wouldn’t matter if I came a dayter. What mattered was that I came. What mattered was that he had opened the door again<b>, </b>and I was never going to let it close.


    10:57 Wed, Sep 24 …


    Tomorrow belonged to Adrian. But today… Today belonged to me and Olivia.


    <b>Я </b>


    35 v