Novels by Ejirooghenetkv

Liana's POV Months passed. Xavier started saving me a seat before I even entered the lecture hall. Somehow, we always ended up walking in the same direction after class, even when neither of us had a reason to. I laughed at his jokes—even the ones that weren't funny—and our study sessions somehow lasted longer than they needed to. Closer than I meant to let anyone get, if I was honest with myself.One afternoon, Freya caught me smiling at something Xavier had said.She raised an eyebrow. "You've been hanging out with him more lately.” Arms crossed, leaning against the wall outside the lecture hall. "You seem comfortable around him now." Her smile was there, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.“We're just partners,” I said, adjusting the strap of my bag so I wouldn't have to look at her directly. It's not my fault the professor keeps putting us together.Oh, just partners, she repeated, like the words tasted wrong in her mouth. Right. Don't worry about it.I shrugged and adjusted my b

Liana's POV It still felt like I was walking through a maze on the second day of campus. My schedule was creased from being refolded too many times, and twice already I'd trailed the wrong hallway before doubling back, watching where other students went so I could pretend I knew where I was going too. At one point I pushed open a door that turned out to be a supply closet, and a guy passing by laughed under his breath before I could shut it fast enough. I kept my eyes down after that, counting building numbers instead of asking anyone for help. Freya caught my eye across the courtyard. We both smiled, and I finally let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.Our first class was literature. The professor spent the morning on poetry, how poets describe things without saying them outright. If you want to call someone beautiful, he said, you don't just say beautiful. You say her eyes are like the moon, because the moon has its own kind of light. He asked for examples, and a boy n

Five years earlier...Liana's POVMy phone rang before I was even properly awake."Liana." Freya's voice came through breathless, half-laughing. "Liana, I got in."I sat up too fast. "Got in where?""The scholarship. The college — the one everyone said I'd never get. I got it."The phone slipped out of my hand and hit the mattress. I didn't even care. I was already on my feet, shouting the news down the hallway oh my God. Before I'd fully processed it myself, loud enough that Grandpa appeared in the doorway half-dressed, asking what on earth was wrong. Nothing was wrong. Everything, for once, was exactly right.She'd worked for that acceptance in a way I hadn't worked for anything in my life — late nights, mock exams, the kind of relentless discipline that made me tired just watching her. She'd earned every letter of that scholarship.She'd earned it the way she'd earned everything, ever since the year her mother died.I still remembered those months better than I'd like to. She cried

Liana's POVFreya stepped out of the car first, her heels sinking slightly into the dirt at the road's edge. She smoothed the front of her dress like she had all the time in the world. Xavier came around from the other side a moment later, standing beside her — not rushing to me, not even glancing at the cliff, at the driver, at any of it. Just standing there, like this was a scene he'd already rehearsed.For a moment I couldn't make my mouth work. My knees had given out somewhere on the walk here, and the gravel bit into my palms where I knelt.Then it came out of me in a rush. "Freya? Xavier?" My voice cracked in half. "What did I do to deserve this? Why?!""So you already know." Freya's mouth curved, unbothered, like I'd asked her something mildly inconvenient. She glanced sideways at Xavier. "Well. The cat's out of the cage."She tilted her head, studying me the way you'd study something whose ending you'd already decided. Her eyes moved over the torn hem of my dress, the missing

Liana's POVThe car turned onto a narrow dirt road hidden between the trees. Branches scraped the windows as we went deeper. The trees got thicker and it started getting dark. "The air coming through the vents got cold, and it smelled like wet dirt.” City sounds were gone completely now — no horns, no distant traffic, just the low hum of the engine and gravel crunching under the tires.My fingers tightened around my bouquet. "Where are we going?""The driver smiled at me in the mirror. It wasn't a nice smile. I felt sick looking at it.He pressed harder on the accelerator. The engine roared, the car surged forward, and I was thrown back against the seat."What are you doing?" My voice cracked. "Stop the car."The driver let out a low chuckle. "You ask too many questions, Miss Hart."I glanced toward the window, searching for anything — a house, a sign, a landmark I could remember later. Nothing but trees, blurring past too fast to count.If this was about money, I could fix this. I ha

Liana's POVI froze at the doorway, my fingers tightening around the edge of the half-open door as my heart pounded against my chest. Standing inside the room...was Xavier Kane and standing before him...was Freya Morgan.For a moment I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Xavier gently brushed a loose strand of hair away from Freya's face. God No… this couldn't be real. The same gentle gesture, the same smile, the same eyes that had always looked at me but now they were looking at her."You worry too much," Xavier said softly.Freya looked into his eyes. "And Liana?"Xavier's expression turned cold. "By tomorrow, she won't be a problem anymore."Freya didn't answer with words. She just laughed — the same laugh I'd heard across a hundred birthdays, a hundred sleepovers, now aimed somewhere I never thought it could go.Xavier gently cupped her face. "I promised you, didn't I? Soon, it will just be the two of us."Without another word, he leaned down and kissed her. Freya wrapped her arms ar