He didn’t take it well.

At first, it was just excessive texting. Then random calls late at night. I eventually blocked his number everywhere and thought that was the end of it.

Until that moment at my window.

I stared at him in complete disbelief. My apartment overlooked an open parking lot.

There was nowhere for him to stand. No ledge. No ladder. Nothing.

Yet somehow, he was there.

Then I noticed the rope.

A thick climbing rope disappeared upward toward the roof of the building.

I felt physically sick.

This man had climbed onto the roof in the middle of the night and lowered himself down three floors just to reach my bedroom window.

I finally snapped out of my shock enough to grab my phone and call 911. The entire time I was talking to the dispatcher, he kept staring at me through the glass without speaking.

That was the part that terrified me most.

He wasn’t yelling. Wasn’t banging aggressively. He just calmly watched me like this was completely normal.

Then he smiled.

I’ll never forget that smile as long as I live.

The dispatcher kept asking if he was trying to enter the apartment, but before I could answer, Daniel lifted one finger to his lips like he was telling me to stay quiet.

Then the rope suddenly shifted.

Hard.

I watched his expression change instantly. His eyes widened in panic as his body jerked sideways away from the window. For one horrible second, he dangled there struggling to grab the rope properly.

Then he slipped.

I still hear the sound sometimes when I’m trying to sleep.

The police arrived within minutes, along with an ambulance. They questioned me for hours afterward while flashing lights filled the parking lot below. I learned later that Daniel survived the fall but shattered multiple bones.

What nobody could explain was how he’d gotten rooftop access in the first place.

After that night, I couldn’t stay there anymore. Every small noise made me panic. Every shadow outside the window made my chest tighten.

I moved out two weeks later.

And for months afterward, I kept wondering the same thing:

How long had he been watching before I finally pulled back that curtain?