LOGINPOV: Elena Friday afternoons were meant to be the quietest part of my week.Most of the athletes disappeared into practice, the library became bearable again, and the campus seemed to exhale after a long week of lectures. If I ignored the cameras that occasionally followed Jace across campus and the whispers that still trailed behind me, I could almost pretend my life had returned to normal.When I arrived, Aiden was already seated at our usual table in the campus café. His laptop was open beside a stack of physiology notes, and two cups of coffee rested between us."You ordered for me?" I asked as I slid into the chair opposite him. He smiled without looking up from the page he was annotating. "I remembered you don't take sugar. " I stared at him for a moment. "I've only told you that once.""You'd be surprised what people remember when they actually listen."The words weren't meant to sting, but they did. Not because of Aiden. Because they reminded me of someone else. I quickly pus
POV: ElenaBy the time I reached the athletes' residence that evening, I had decided on exactly one thing.If Jace Calloway left another wet towel on the bathroom floor, I was going to strangle him.I pushed the apartment door open with my shoulder, balancing a stack of physiology textbooks against my hip. The familiar scent of coffee drifted from the kitchen, followed by the muffled sound of a basketball game playing on the television.For one blissful second, I thought he might not be home. Then I saw a trail of enormous sneakers leading from the entryway to the living room."Seriously?" I muttered.One shoe sat beside the couch. The other had somehow ended up in the middle of the hallway. I nudged it aside with my foot before continuing toward my room. The apartment wasn't large, but it was comfortable enough for the arrangement. Richard had insisted it would be "more practical" while we kept up appearances near campus. There were two bedrooms, a shared bathroom, a compact kitchen,
(Dual POV) POV: JaceThe message from Coach Mercer had contained only six words.Film room. Ten minutes. Mandatory attendance.No explanation. No room for questions.By the time I pushed open the door, every seat was occupied. Conversations that normally filled the room before meetings An uneasy silence replaced the usual conversations that filled the room before meetings. by an uneasy silence. Noah sat with his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor. Ryan occupied a chair near the back, his jaw set so tightly I thought he might crack a tooth.The coach entered a moment later carrying a thick manila folder. He closed the door behind him. "I'll make this quick." No one moved.Coach placed the folder on the table at the front of the room and looked at each of us in turn. "For the last two weeks, I've been trying to figure out who has been feeding information to people outside this program. " A few players shifted in their seats. "I made a mistake. "That caught everyone's attention.
POV: ElenaThe drive home was unusually quiet. Normally, one of us would have found something to argue about before we reached the main road. Jace would complain about a reckless driver. I'd tell him he drove too fast. He'd deny it. I'd roll my eyes, and somehow we'd end up laughing by the time we pulled into the estate.Today, neither of us seemed interested in filling the silence.My mind kept drifting back to Ryan and the envelope. I had told myself not to jump to conclusions anymore. The anonymous text had proved how easy it was to look in the wrong direction. Still, I couldn't ignore what I'd seen."You're thinking again," Jace said, glancing at me briefly before returning his eyes to the road. "I didn't realize it was that obvious." "It becomes obvious when you keep staring out the window." I hesitated. "I saw something after practice." His expression sharpened immediately."What?""Ryan." He sighed quietly."Elena...""I know what you're going to say." "Do you?" "Coach told you
POV: ElenaBy Thursday afternoon, the basketball team no longer looked like a team.From my seat high in the bleachers, I watched practice unfold with the uneasy feeling that something fundamental had changed. The drills were the same. Coach Mercer's whistle still echoed through the arena every few minutes, and the players still moved with the speed and precision that had made them one of the best programmes in the conference.But the atmosphere was different. There were fewer laughs between drills. Conversations ended the moment someone else approached. Players who had once slapped each other on the back after a successful play now simply nodded and jogged to the next position. Coach noticed it too.He let the team finish a defensive rotation before blowing his whistle so sharply that everyone froze."Centre court. Now." The players gathered around him, breathing heavily. Coach folded his arms, his expression harder than usual. "I'm only going to say this once. " The gym fell silent.
POV: ElenaThe anonymous message stayed with me long after I locked my phone.YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE WRONG PLAYER. Five words. They should have been easy to ignore. Anyone could have sent them. It could have been another attempt to frighten me, another game played by the person who had left the bridal veil on our doorstep and lured me to the greenhouse. Yet something about the message felt different. It didn't threaten me. It corrected me. I had barely slept because of it.The next morning, I sat near the window in my physiology lecture, my notebook open but my attention drifting elsewhere. Dr. Hassan was explaining the regulation of blood pressure, his voice carrying evenly through the classroom, but the words blurred together. Instead, I found myself scrolling through the anonymous campus gossip account. Every post. Every comment. Every timestamp. I worked backward, ignoring the insults aimed at me and focusing on the posts about the basketball team. One mentioned a closed-door stra
POV: ElenaBy Wednesday afternoon, I had successfully avoided Jace for almost two days.It wasn't simple. Living under the same roof made avoidance nearly impossible, but I had managed it by leaving for class early, staying on campus late, and taking advantage of the fact that basketball seemed to
POV: ElenaAlmost instantly, the heavy, dark atmosphere Jace radiated began driving his guests toward the exits. Nobody wanted to be in the firing line of Halden University’s golden boy when he looked like he was about to rip a door off its hinges. Whispering crowds flooded, scrambling to grab thei
POV: ElenaThe sharp, echoing crack seemed to vibrate through the entire house, but neither of us moved.Water seeped into the pristine white tiles, carrying tiny, jagged shards right to the edge of his bare toes. Jace didn't even flinch. He just lowered the juice carton from his lips, his eyes tra
POV: ElenaThe blast of thick, humid air hit me the second I stepped off the jet bridge, but it wasn't nearly as suffocating as the voice vibrating against my eardrum."Elena? Are you off yet? Tell me you’re off the plane," my mother’s voice rushed through the line, accompanied by the distinct, cli







