Page 8 of Forced By an Obsessive Bratva Stalker

The thought of her was a welcome distraction I didn’t realize I needed.

Chapter 3 – Aria

It had been two days since the incident at Meridian Solutions, and I still hadn’t fully recovered. I skipped classes and barely left my place. The scene kept replaying in my head over and over again as I tried to make sense of it.

Frankie had called me the second I got home that evening. He said he saw my text and was wondering what I meant when I asked what was happening out there. He claimed he’d stepped away to take an important call, which took longer than he expected.

By the time he was done, I was already gone. He said he asked the receptionist if she saw me, and the lady told him I’d bolted like I’d seen a ghost. Frankie had tried to get me to tell him why I left so abruptly.

I didn’t know if I could tell him the truth; besides, I was too scared to even talk. So, I lied. I told him that I got a message saying one of the due dates of my assignment had been moved to the next day. That was why I ran the way I did.

“Come on, you don’t actually expect me to believe that, do you?” he’d said over the phone. “I know you, Aria. Academic deadlines aren’t enough to put the fear of God in you.”

He was right to be suspicious. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what I’d seen. I tried to laugh it off, sounding as normal as I could—even though I was breaking apart inside. In the end, Frankie had no choice but to believe my story. He said he was sorry to have left his post, but that he had to take that call.

“It’s fine, Frankie. Really…it is.”

“If you insist. All right. Just stay safe out there.”

After he hung up the phone, those last words echoed in my head. Even two days later, they still did.

“Stay safe out there.”

I knew that was a regular statement people threw around as a reminder that the world was a dangerous place. It wasn’t that deep. But after what I witnessed that day, the same words no longer seemed so casual.

The few times I’d stepped out to the grocery store nearby, something seemed off. Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Maybe I was only being paranoid. But I could swear that someone was watching me from across the street.

It felt like they’d been secretly following me since the moment I stepped out of my place. To me, everyone on the street was a suspect—those in the grocery store, too. No one ever made a move on me, and no one gazed at me longer than they should. Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Even my own bedroom didn’t feel so safe anymore. I barely ate and got no sleep. I was always awake and on high alert.

If you had just listened to me when I told you to leave, we wouldn’t be in this mess by now, said my voice of reason.

Well, at least now we know for sure that Meridian Solutions is a dirty, corrupt industry with ties to the Russian Bratva.

Yeah, and what good is that knowledge to us right now?

As both voices went back and forth in my head, I rolled over to the other side of the bed. I buried my head under my pillow like that would somehow make all my problems go away. The problems that I often walked right into.

Maybe it’s true what they say: Curiosity does kill the cat.

I stayed in my apartment all day, watching the hours tick by while I was trapped in my own paranoia. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how this fear was starting to slowly interfere with my life.

What if those men didn’t actually see my face? What if I were only being afraid for no reason? I’d asked Frankie if the cameras were disabled the whole time I was there. And his response was yes.

So, it was possible that whoever those Bratva men were, they didn’t catch my face. They didn’t know what I looked like.

What about the person watching us? my voice of reason asked.

What if there’s no one watching? my voice of curiosity chipped in. What if it’s just Aria’s fear of the unknown that’s keeping us stuck?

Could I be overthinking this?

Did I put my life on hold in fear of something that might not be out there?

You’ve already wasted forty-eight hours of your life, Aria. How long are you gonna keep hiding in here for? A pause. Look, even if these mafia men saw your face, do you honestly think this apartment can keep you safe? If they wanna find you, they will. So, why bother hiding?

That pesky little voice of audacity knew exactly how to get me all charged up in my down times. I got out of bed, grabbed my hoodie, and decided to go for a walk. I needed to clear my head.

Uh, you can clear your head in here, you know. Within the walls of this house, said my voice of reason. Where you’re safe.