My name is Adrian Hale, and I was never the kind of man girls fell for at first sight.
I was thin, tall, medium-colored—ordinary in the most forgettable way. If there were ten men in a room, I'd be the one you wouldn't notice twice. I knew that. I had accepted it long ago. What I didn't lack were words. I could speak well. I could persuade. I could hold a conversation long enough to make people listen.
But none of that mattered to Elena Cruz.
To me, Elena was perfect. Not in a fairy-tale way, but in a way that hurt deeply. Her sharp tongue, her cold confidence, even her arrogance felt beautiful to me. I convinced myself she was made for me, that one day she would finally see what I saw.
She never did.
Instead, she insulted me whenever she got the chance—effortlessly, carelessly—as if my feelings were nothing. Sometimes she mocked my appearance. Sometimes she laughed at my sincerity. She gave me names, changing them each time, adding more cruelty like it amused her.
"Desperate." "Clingy." "Pathetic."
Hearing those words from Elena hurt more than I ever admitted.
And still, I stayed.
I listened when she spoke. I helped when she needed someone. I smiled when she laughed at me. I told myself it was love. I told myself patience would be rewarded. But deep down, I knew the truth.
I wasn't invisible to her.
I was just someone she enjoyed belittling.
What Elena never noticed was what her words were doing to me. Every insult settled quietly in my mind. Every rejection twisted into something darker—something I buried beneath calm expressions and polite conversations.
My fantasies weren't about touching her.
They were about being seen by her.
About the day she'd look at me without mockery.
About the moment regret would replace her laughter.
She believed she had power over me.
Maybe she did.
But power has a way of shifting when emotions are ignored for too long… when silence turns heavy… and when fantasies are fed night after night.
This is where my story begins.
Not as the man Elena Cruz mocked.
But as the man she never truly understood.