A black rose. A countdown. A love that should never have existed.
Three years ago, Scarlett talked a stranger off a rooftop. She didn't know his name. She didn't ask for his story. She just sat with him on the edge of oblivion, drunk and reckless and impossibly alive.
Then she forgot about him.
He never forgot about her.
For three years, Elijah Cross watched. He documented. He filled journals with every detail of the girl who saved his life without knowing it - what she wore, where she studied, when she laughed. He convinced himself that proximity was connection. That obsession was gratitude. That love could exist without ever being spoken.
Then, fourteen days before Valentine's Day, he left a black rose at her door.
No note. No name. Just a countdown she couldn't see - toward an ending she couldn't imagine.
One rose became gifts. Gifts became letters. Letters became a trail of breadcrumbs leading Scarlett into the mind of someone who knew her better than anyone ever had - and that terrified her more than anything.
Because black roses don't grow in nature. Someone has to make them.
And someone has been making one for her every single day.
As the countdown reaches zero, Scarlett must confront a horrifying truth: the person watching her isn't a stranger. And the line between being watched over and being watched... is thinner than she ever imagined.
This is the story of how a stalker became a lover. How a victim became a fighter. How two people who should have destroyed each other found a way to save each other instead.
And it all started with a black rose.
Perfect for readers who devoured Haunting Adeline, Twisted Love, Behind Closed Doors, and You by Caroline Kepnes. If you love dark romance with morally complex heroes, obsessive love, and a heroine who refuses to be a victim - this book will consume you.
Content Warning: This novel contains stalking and obsessive behavior, suicidal ideation and attempts, depression and mental health struggles, explicit sexual content, emotional manipulation, and parental abandonment. This is a work of fiction. The behaviors depicted are not condoned in real life. Intended for readers 18+.
The countdown is over. The obsession has just begun.
