Perfect 🌹 Let's start writing Beneath His Shadowsexactly according to your description — slow, steady, emotional, with POV, and the story unfolding step by step.
We'll begin with:
✅ Chapter 1 – Elara loses her job (Elara's POV).
Next will be:
✅ Chapter 2 – She meets Eleanor in the park (Eleanor & Elara POV).
Here's Chapter 1 in Webnovel style:
Beneath His Shadows Chapter 1 – The Day I Lost Everything
Elara's POV
The stench of fried oil and burnt coffee clung to me like a curse. My uniform was stained, my shoes pinched, and my manager's voice drilled through the air like a hammer against glass.
"Elara, table five has been waiting for nearly ten minutes! Move faster, or don't bother showing up tomorrow."
I swallowed the words clawing up my throat. Rent was due. My stomach was empty. My bank account held only coins. Talking back would seal my fate. So I forced a nod and hurried on, balancing a tray that felt heavier than it should have.
The customers barely looked at me as I set down their food. To them, I wasn't a person—just another server blending into the greasy haze of the diner.
By the end of my shift, my body felt hollow, running only on the thin thread of survival. When the manager called me into his office, I already knew.
"We're cutting staff," he said without even looking at me. "You're too slow. Today was your last shift."
The words landed like stones, sinking into my chest. Too slow? I had been running since dawn, my legs aching, my smile cracking. But excuses didn't matter. Not here. Not in this world.
I wanted to beg, but pride chained my tongue. So I nodded, holding back the sting of tears, and walked out.
The night air slapped me in the face. Rain fell in heavy sheets, plastering my hair against my skin. The neon diner sign flickered behind me, casting the street in sickly red and yellow.
Jobless. Again.
My last twenty dollars sat folded in my pocket, mocking me. Rent overdue. Bills unpaid. Hunger clawing at my stomach. The weight of hopelessness pressed on me until my knees almost buckled.
I stood there for a long time, letting the rain wash over me as if it could erase the failure stamped across my life.
But the truth was unshakable: I had lost everything.
And I didn't know what tomorrow would bring.