Three years ago, she went through something that should have shattered her mind and body for good. But she endured. She gave her testimony despite the painful memories, survived the trial, and sent her rapist to prison, hoping to build a new life. After changing her city and her phone number, she slowly began to believe it was possible.

But everything changes the day Markus is released early. Due to mitigating circumstances, he walks free after three years — and that time hasn’t changed him at all. It has only angered the predator who never finished what he started. He still remembered her sobs, the taste of her fear, the scent of her skin.

It was November. A nasty, sticky rain that felt like it seeped beneath the skin. The girl was returning from a corporate party around ten in the evening. The entrance hall seemed empty and harmless — until she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor.

The doors were almost closed when a gloved hand suddenly stopped them.

He entered. Markus looked like a polite neighbor and smiled that same smile that would later haunt her nightmares for another three years.

She remembers the sound of her coat fabric tearing. She remembers the cold wall he pinned her against. And she remembers how his phone, slipped from his hand and lying on the floor, played some cheerful, wildly inappropriate pop song while her world fell apart. She screamed — but the music only grew louder.

It seemed that hell had ended.

But now it was only beginning.