Masuk☆☆SUMMER'S POV☆☆🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹Okay. Imagine the pure, incandescent urge to kick a woman you’ve just met square in her perfectly sculpted face, just because she annoys the hell out of you. That was me. I had the sweetest itch to kick that bitch.Yes—Sienna. My boyfriend’s cousin. I fantasise about redecorating her face. What in the actual fuck is wrong with her? Answer: everything, in the most exhausting, performative ways.🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹I hadn’t heard Jake’s voice outside the door until Sienna’s knock—the kind that announces entitlement—slammed me awake. Then she mentioned his name. I wondered if they came together.For half a breath I thought: ignore her. Be the bigger person. Be the cliché “mature girlfriend.” Then a plan—not even a plan, an instinct—crossed my mind and refused to leave.I didn’t have a blueprint. I had a motive. Anything that would make Sienna choke on her own smugness felt like art. Call it petty; call it therapy. Call it whatever keeps me sane.“The bastard son a
♤♤JAKE'S POV♤♤She was supposed to be mine first. Before Hayden. Before she decided she needed saving—by him. Of all people, she needed my fucking bastard brother to save her.I had followed her sometimes. To class. To cafés. Even to her former dorm. It was just to make sure she was safe—that’s what I told myself, anyway.I’d watched her. Not in a creepy way. Just… watching. I had to make sure no one else touched her. But the truth? I just needed to see her. Summer with her books pressed against her chest. Summer laughing with that soft, broken sound that made my heart twitch. Summer brushing her hair behind her ear, unaware that I was cataloging every fucking second.I never touched her. I just… kept her. In pictures. In pixels. In breath. Every picture was proof that she still existed somewhere I could reach. But then I saw them. Hayden’s guards. Shadow men. They were always around her. Always behind her. Man, it was fucked up that he had his club security following her like flies
♡♡HAYDEN'S POV♡♡His eyes flicked to me. “Yes, she did. It was the last time we ever saw each other. It was the day she promised never to disturb our lives again. I was headed out when we met. She said she hated the garden. Geneviève didn’t like that very much. We know how much Geneviève loves her garden. I left your mom with Tara. They discussed the adoption process before she left.”Adoption? You gotta be kidding me. Why hadn’t anyone told me this before? This just changed everything. The last time I saw my mom was when she dropped me off at the Dylan’s mansion. She promised to return for me. But she never did.My mother must have come to France to pick me up during one of the holidays. But I never got to see her. If she met Tara and Countess Geneviève, she must have been there to see me, not to give me away. I didn’t believe she’d ever give me away that easily.“She must have come here to take me home,” I said quietly. “Not to give me away. If she met Tara and Geneviève, she must’
♡♡HAYDEN'S POV♡♡The air in the foyer had gone thick. It felt like the walls themselves were choking on everything that had just been said. Summer was still beside me, hand trembling slightly in mine.The silence that followed my words—You are not my grandmother—wasn’t silence at all. It was judgment. It was whispers. It was the sound of centuries frowning down at me.Countess Geneviève’s red painted lips curved, though her eyes stayed sharp. She didn’t argue. She didn’t even blink. Her eyes only flicked toward me, pale and still, like I was something she’d found floating dead in her expensive champagne glass.Across the hall, servants froze mid-breath. Tara looked like she was about to drop dead any second. Someone dropped a fork. The echo felt deafening. Then came the whispers. Loud and clear.“That’s why he shouldn’t have been invited. He even brought that girl with him.”“The bastard son always forgets his place.”“Poor Tara… imagine living with that scandal.”“I heard he was expe
☆☆SUMMER’S POV☆☆We arrived in France the next morning. I was surprised that I slept like a baby throughout the journey. Whenever I woke up, Hayden's eyes were on me. He would kiss me and tell me to get some sleep. I didn’t even remember if anyone else was there at that time. Just him. Only him.Ugh! Then there was Jake. That smug bastard. I caught him pretending to sleep across from us, his jaw tight, his lashes fluttering when Hayden brushed my hair off my shoulder.He was glaring through the cracks of his act, and I knew it. I could feel it. He always looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t—like he was biting back a warning no one asked for. Psycho.Two black cars were already waiting at the airport when we touched down. Hayden and I were left to drive alone together. Thank God for that. We rode behind the rest of his family.The drive from the private airstrip to Hayden’s grandparents’ estate felt like traveling into another world—one where everything was dipped in gold
☆☆SUMMER’S POV☆☆“Hayden. Please, come in,” Dad said, like he was inviting a tax auditor and not my boyfriend who may or may not be the reason my anxiety medication should come in bulk. I’m kidding. I don’t take any anxiety medication.I shuffled aside like a malfunctioning robot, only realizing how weird I was acting when Keith shot me the ‘please stop embarrassing us’ look he’d perfected since birth.“These are for you,” Hayden said, stepping in like some romantic drama hero, handing the bouquet and box of chocolates to my dad. Not to me. I thought those were for me.Dad blinked at the gifts like he was trying to decide if Hayden was bribing him or proposing.“I owe you an apology, Mr. Peterson” said Hayden. “I should’ve told you sooner about me and Summer.”Dad nodded slowly, studying him. “You should have,” he said. “But I appreciate the honesty now. And I love the flowers and chocolate. Call me Edward, son.”Hayden smiled. “I care about Summer. I’m not here to make trouble.”Dad







