Prologue – Trigger Heart

Prologue

> "Love is like a loaded gun—sometimes, you don’t realize it’s aimed at your own chest."

---

San Roque, Batangas

11:47 PM.

Rainfall: heavy. Visibility: low. Target: inside.

Ravi delos Reyes stood under a broken streetlamp across Café Ligaya, rain dripping off his hood like the world was slowly trying to wash him away.

He'd been undercover for two weeks now — posing as a harmless tambay, jobless and forgettable. The truth? He was on a deep cover operation to investigate Raul “Kalbo” Montañez, an infamous trafficker with suspected links to several small towns across Southern Luzon.

But tonight, his mission wasn’t about Kalbo.

It was about her.

Asha Rivera — café owner, target’s niece by blood, or maybe just a pawn in the bigger game.

The agency wasn’t sure. But Ravi’s gut told him something else: she didn’t belong in this mess.

She was smart. Sharp-tongued. And too genuine to fake the way she laughed or the way she handed him leftovers each afternoon, pretending not to care.

> “Keep eyes on the girl,” barked Uncle Pido’s voice through his comms. “No contact unless confirmed hostile. Copy?”

Ravi didn’t answer right away. His eyes stayed locked on Asha’s silhouette inside the café, her outline flickering under the soft yellow lights. She wiped down the counter like she did every night, humming to herself as if the world outside wasn’t drowning.

He exhaled. “Copy.”

But it was a lie.

Because the real danger wasn’t what Asha might be hiding.

It was what she was slowly unlocking — in him.

---

He remembered the first time she talked to him like he mattered. No pity. No fear. Just that signature sarcasm.

> “Kuya, you again? You planning to haunt this sidewalk forever?”

> “Maybe. Rent’s cheap.”

> “Well, if you die there, I’m charging you for the space.”

And just like that, he laughed — really laughed — for the first time in months.

That was the moment Ravi realized: she wasn’t part of the case. She was the turning point.

---