Chapter 1

I was a CEO in Kingston, wealthy, good-looking, living a life most people could only fantasize about. By all reasonable measures, I should have felt like the luckiest man alive.

But then there was Edward Carter, the one person I simply could not stand. He was also a major force in Kingston, and somehow, he had always been a little richer and a little better looking than I was.

People had been comparing the two of us since we were kids, and I never once came out on top. That was the root of my dislike for him, plain and simple.

Ever since I took over the family business, I had gone out of my way to avoid him entirely. People liked to say we were like two rival lions who never shared the same territory.

My plan was to keep watching him from the shadows, and the moment I finally pulled ahead, I would stride right up to him, plant my hands on my hips, and laugh in his face.

But then, one morning, I woke up to find myself locked in a pitch-black room with him.

A voice said, "Welcome to the Escape Room of Fated Choices.

"To leave this place, the two of you must keep your bodies within four inches of each other. Fail, and you'll be trapped here forever."

I glared at Edward, whose ears had turned bright red, while the veins in my forehead throbbed visibly. I snapped, "Who the hell is messing with me?"

*****

My name was Jamie Pena. I was a big deal in Kingston, sitting on a fortune in the billions, with the kind of looks that made people do a double-take wherever I went.

My parents were still madly in love, and my family was basically a picture out of a lifestyle magazine.

By all logic, I should be some smooth-talking playboy, living it up as an untouchable elite, confident to the point of arrogance.

Instead, here I was, a mouse hiding in my office, secretly scrolling through my phone and obsessing over people's posts.

[Can anyone beat my luck right now? Look what I caught on camera at Kingston International Airport!]

[Holy crap, it's Mr. Carter!]

[All hail Mr. Carter, the king has returned!]

[Wait, what's with all the worship in this thread? Is he some kind of celebrity? Damn, he's seriously good-looking though!]

[Let me fill you in. Mr. Carter's full name is Edward Carter. He used to be the leader of the Kingston Four, not because he was the oldest, but because he was the most capable by far.]

[He came from money, sure, but he also skipped grades all the way through school, got into MIT, and then went abroad and founded Ignite Technologies.

[Honestly, half the apps on your phone right now? They're probably from one of his companies.]

[Wait, that's insane!]

[Right? Out of the original Kingston Four, two are basically washed up, and only one can still remotely keep up with him.]

[Hold on, you mean Jamie Pena?]

[Please. He inherited everything handed to him on a silver platter. He can't even hold a candle to Mr. Carter.]

[And honestly, the name Jamie is so painfully average. Not like Edward, now that's a name straight out of a romance novel.]

[LOL, guess winter's coming early for Pena Corporation. Time to go bankrupt!]

Staring at the trending topics on my phone, I was so furious that I kept smashing the report button over and over.

These tasteless internet trolls. Seriously, what was wrong with the name Pena? On behalf of Penas everywhere, allow me to extend my deepest contempt to each and every one of you.

And running a family business was no joke, alright? Taking over from my dad wasn't exactly a walk in the park.

Besides, who said I even wanted to compete with that guy?

I was still jabbing at my phone, the screen clicking and clacking under my thumbs, when everything around me plunged into total darkness. Not a sliver of light anywhere.

"Where are we?" His voice came from behind me.

One sentence was all it took for me to know exactly who it was. Edward Carter. My sworn rival. The man the internet never got tired of comparing me to, always at my expense.

I had spent so much time obsessing over how to beat him that I'd practically memorized every word he ever said in board meetings. At night, I'd fall asleep to recordings of his voice like some deranged superfan.

No one else on earth had a voice that deep, that effortlessly magnetic. It was unmistakably his.

I kept my mouth shut and didn't answer.

Honestly, I had no clue where we were or if this pitch-black room was even safe. But more than that, I really did not want to talk to him.

A voice said, "Ding dong! I am the master of this world, the Escape Room of Fated Choices. You two can call me Shadow for short."

I reached out into the darkness, using my steps to measure the space.

I traced the walls from corner to corner. My stride was roughly three feet, and each wall took three steps.

So the room was probably a square, about nine feet by nine feet, though the ceiling height was anyone's guess.

As I was piecing that together, Edward's voice drifted over from behind me, calm as ever. "I don't know who you are, but since we're both stuck in this, I'll tell you what I've got.

"I paced it out. Each wall is about nine feet. Took me two and a half steps per side."

I rolled my eyes in the dark. God, what a show off. Nobody asked. He had to flex those long legs and act all helpful, didn't he?

Shadow let out a chuckle. "Complete the first task, and you'll get to light up the room."

As soon as the voice faded, a softly glowing timer flickered to life on the dark wall, already counting down.