The performance hall was nearly empty now. Only the soft echo of footsteps remained, swallowed by velvet curtains and silence. Evelyn Hart sat motionless at the grand piano, her fingers lingering over the last note of Nocturne in B Minor - a piece she had played more than a hundred times, yet tonight, it felt like someone else's song.

Her audience had clapped like they were supposed to. Professors nodded with bored approval. Students whispered her name like she was a ghost. But none of them heard the tremble in her hands? or noticed the crumpled piece of paper slipped between the keys.

She hadn't seen it until the stage lights dimmed.

With a nervous glance around, Evelyn unfolded the note. The handwriting was precise, sharp - like a blade.

"The music still remembers us.

You can pretend you've forgotten,

but I haven't.

Until you're mine - L."

Her chest tightened. L.

Only one person ever called her that in writing.

Lucien Blackwood.

The man she had once loved.

The man who had vanished.

The man who had destroyed her.

She hadn't seen him in two years. After their last night together - when she found his lies buried beneath wine-stained sheet music and soft promises - she erased him from her life like an ugly note in a perfect melody.

Or so she thought.

The doors at the back of the hall creaked open.

Evelyn froze.

A tall figure stepped through the shadows, dressed in black. His walk was slow, deliberate. Her breath caught in her throat.

Lucien.

His face was older, sharper. But his eyes - grey, calculating - were exactly the same. He stood there, silent, watching her like he was hearing a song only he understood.

"You still play like you're bleeding," he said softly.

Her voice trembled. "You shouldn't be here."

Lucien smiled, and it wasn't kind. "And yet? here I am. Watching you. Listening. Remembering."

Evelyn stood, backing away from the piano. "You lost the right to be in my life the moment you lied to me."

"I didn't lie," he said, voice dangerously calm. "I protected you."

"From what? Yourself?"

Lucien stepped closer. "From the truth you weren't ready to hear. But it's time now. I came back for you, Evelyn. And this time, I won't leave without you."

A chill ran down her spine. His eyes didn't blink. His voice didn't break. He wasn't here to win her love.

He was here to claim her.

"Until you're mine," he repeated, lips brushing the air like a promise.

"And you will be. Soon."