MANEATER

By Freddie Sampayo

A Seductive, Deadly, Psychological Thriller

By Freddie Sampayo

She comes out at night.

Not for love.

Not for the company.

For the hunt.

Men call her beautiful.

Women call her dangerous.

The city calls her legend-

a whisper in hotel bars, a warning in after-midnight clubs, a rumor trace

• Language: English
• Publisher: Freddie Sampayo
• Release date: Nov 22, 2025
• ISBN: 9798295424182

Book preview

MANEATER

She Doesn't break Hearts, She collects them

Freddie Sampayo

Copyright © 2025 Freddie Sampayo

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means— including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations used in reviews or scholarly works.

Dedication

To every woman who was labeled too much,

too bold, too emotional, too impossible to love—

and decided to stop apologizing for surviving.

To the ones who learned that protecting your heart

doesn’t make you cold—

It makes you wise.

To those who were broken, blamed, underestimated,

and came back sharper, stronger,

and no longer willing to beg for the kind of love

They were always worthy of.

And to the woman who finally realized

She doesn’t have to be gentle

to be unforgettable—

This story is yours.

— Freddie Sampayo

Table of Contents

Dedication

About the Author

Prologue:  The Night She Chooses

Chapter One:  Red Rooms, Black Hearts

Chapter Two:  How to Price a Heart

Temple, Night Two

Chapter Three:  The First Lesson in Losing

11:45 p.m. – The Penthouse That Wasn’t a Home

Chapter Four:  The First Cut Always Looks Like Pleasure

The Bait

The Turn

The Cut

Chapter Five:  How Desire Starts to Hurt

Leon Makes the First Move

The Line Evan Crosses

Chapter Six:  The First Night She Doesn’t Let Him In

The Message

The Rule He Didn’t Expect

What He Didn’t Know

The Shift in Him

Chapter Seven:  When a Woman Like Mara Starts to Haunt

The Shift

The Article That Wasn’t

The Invitation He Didn’t Expect

What He Didn’t Know

Chapter Eight:  The First Man Who Tries to Save Him

The Stranger Speaks First

The First Real Warning

The Line Is Drawn

Chapter Nine:  The First Night She Lets Him Touch Her

What Evan Didn’t See

Chapter Ten:  The First Time She Lets Him In… and the First Time She Pushes Him Away

The First Real Split Between Them

The Truth He Didn’t See

Chapter Eleven:  The First Time He Pushes Back

The Decision He Wasn’t Supposed to Make

The Line Evan Crosses

What Evan Didn’t Know

Chapter Twelve:  The First Time She Loses Control

What She Does When She’s Afraid

Meanwhile: Evan Makes His Move

What Mara Didn’t Plan For

Chapter Thirteen:  The Night the Truth Finally Bleeds Through

The File That Shouldn’t Exist

The Real Cut

What Evan Didn’t Know

Chapter Fourteen:  The First Time She Runs

The System Reacts

Meanwhile: Evan Goes Looking

What He Finds Instead

The Choice That Forms in Him

Chapter Fifteen:  The Hunt Begins

Step One: The Search

Step Two: The Target Shifts

Step Three: The Trap He Doesn’t See

What Evan Doesn’t Know Yet

Chapter Sixteen:  The First Trail of Blood

What Evan doesn’t know?

Chapter Seventeen:  The First Rule Of Want

Chapter Eighteen:  The Question That Breaks The Rules

Chapter Nineteen:  The Disappearance

Chapter Twenty:  The Night She Almost Lost Control

Chapter Twenty-One:  The Touch That Wasn’t A Game

Chapter Twenty-Two:  The Morning She Didn’t Expect

Chapter Twenty-Three:  The Temptation To Return To Who She Was

Chapter Twenty-Four:  The Boundaries She Won’t Bend

Chapter Twenty-Five:  The One Who Knew Her Before Power Had A Price

Chapter Twenty-Six:  The Night She Learned Never To Be The One Who Bleeds

Chapter Twenty-Eight:  The Decision That Refuses To Be Made

The Unexpected Message

The Former Queen

The Test

And Then — The Final Strike

Chapter Twenty-Nine:  The Truth That Arrives Before You're Ready

Chapter Thirty:  The Days That Didn’t Wait

Chapter Thirty-One:  The Night Before Leaving

Chapter Thirty-Two:  The Door That Didn’t Close

Epilogue:  The Echo That Stayed Behind

About the Author

[Client will be providing details]

Prologue:

The Night She Chooses

She never arrived with the first wave of the evening.

Early hours were for amateurs—the glitter-drunk, the loud men making noise to drown out fear.  She preferred the late hush, when the city's pulse slipped into a lower register and the velvet of night stuck to your skin like a secret.

From the mezzanine, the club looked like an altar.  Red light bled over cut-glass rims; bass rolled like a heartbeat you couldn't quite admit to.  Doors sighed.  Eyes gleamed.  Everyone was buying something—time, attention, the illusion of being chosen.

She watched them as a cat watches a bowl of cream.

The room made a myth of her—some called her the velvet omen, some whispered a name they never seemed to remember the morning after.  She dressed like a promise and walked like the aftermath.  Men laughed more when she passed.  Women measured their spines and wondered if danger could be learned.

She didn't chase.  She didn't need to.

Want is a skill—she wore it like perfume.

At a corner table, a man with journalist hands and a sinner's mouth sat with a drink he wasn't tasting.  He had that look—sturdy enough to think he wouldn't break, curious enough to try.  His jacket was cheap but clean; his watch was honest.  His gaze?  Hungry, but not for the usual things.

She clocked him in one slow sweep.  Not a mark.  Not a meal.

A project.

Her lips curved, not into a smile, but into a decision.  When she rose, a dozen conversations tripped over themselves.  She didn't notice.  Or pretended she didn't.  The staircase surrendered beneath her heels; heads tilted as if pulled by a tide.  At the landing, she paused, letting the room exhale, letting the air learn her name.

Then she descended—silver, shadow, soft threat—and chose the path that would ruin someone and make someone else a legend.

Tonight, she would taste sincerity and teach it how to beg.

And somewhere, two lives would tilt, then lock, then fall.

The night did what it always did.

It closed its mouth over the city and swallowed.

Chapter One:

Red Rooms, Black Hearts

Evan Vale didn't belong in rooms like this, not anymore.  He'd made a career out of telling the truth about people who sold lies—the finance devils, the political saints with knives behind their teeth.  But the truth didn't pay like it used to.  Editors wanted bloodless