This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The rain fell like tears from a wounded sky, each drop carrying the weight of unspoken sorrow through the narrow streets of Porto. Isabella Santos pressed her face against the cold window of the antiquarian bookshop where she worked, watching the world blur into watercolor streaks of gray and amber. The ancient building groaned with the weight of centuries, its walls lined with forgotten stories and abandoned dreams.

She had always been drawn to the forgotten things, the discarded and the broken. Perhaps that was why she found herself here, among dusty tomes and crumbling manuscripts, rather than in the gleaming offices of the modern city. There was honesty in decay, a raw truth that polished surfaces could never offer.

The bell above the door chimed with a melancholy note as someone entered, bringing with them the scent of rain and something darker—something that made Isabella's breath catch in her throat. She turned slowly, her hand still pressed against the cool glass, and found herself staring into eyes the color of a stormy sea.

He stood in the doorway like a figure carved from shadow and sorrow, water dripping from his dark coat onto the worn wooden floor. His hair was black as midnight, pushed back from a face that might have been beautiful if not for the haunted expression that seemed etched into his very bones. There was something predatory in the way he moved, yet also wounded, like a wolf caught in a trap of his own making.

"We're closing soon," Isabella managed to say, though her voice sounded strange to her own ears. Something about this stranger unsettled her in ways she couldn't name.

He didn't respond immediately. Instead, his gaze swept over the shop with the intensity of someone searching for something specific, something vital. When his eyes finally settled on her again, Isabella felt as though he could see straight through to her soul.