INICIAR SESIÓNPresent SELENE'S POVMy pulse roared in my ears. Despite it all, I made a show of recoiling in shock.“Excuse me,” I said, my voice a pitch higher. “How dare you accuse me of something so outrageous.”He looked almost bored.“See, I wouldn’t have done such a thing without doing my due diligence first,” he said calmly. “All it took was a google search on Grayson Vexley’s new secretary and I found out that you’d spent the final year of your high school in the same as his.”“And from there,” he went on smoothly, “all it took was one phone call to an old classmate. Just one. And suddenly, your history with Grayson Vexley was wide open. It all made sense then.”I almost laughed. Did he really think one phone call could ever encapsulate the complicated history we shared? We were so much more than anyone had ever been able to see on the surface. The ugliest, most dangerous parts of our story had always stayed buried, veiled behind the easy cruelty he showed me in public. They weren’t for a
PRESENTSELENE’S POV:“Sel?” Bella’s voice reached me and I straigtened up from where I was hunched over the counter with a spoonful of ice cream still in my mouth.“Yes?”“There’s a gentleman here to see you.”I blinked, tossed the spoon into the sink, and glanced down at myself.I was in my sleeping pyjamas but it was the gentleman’s mistake to show up to someone’s house on such ungentlemanly hours.Still, I ran a quick hand through my hair as I headed toward the door, silently praying it wasn’t Grayson. Thought Bella would’ve never referred to him as a gentleman if it was.She stood with the door half-cracked open, her body angled in a way that blocked my view. But the moment she heard me approach, she stepped aside.I froze mid-step. Corey Allister stood on my front porch, dressed like he just got out of some meeting. His dress was spot on, his hair more so and the smile he gave Bella was the kind of smile that could undo most women in seconds.I frowned at him. “I’m sorry but wha
Present Selene's Pov The words landed with the calm authority of someone used to getting what he wanted and I framed my expression into one of mild surprise.“You leaked what I needed to win a very public skirmish. Now imagine the damage we could do in concert.” His gaze held mine, probing. “We both want the same thing, Selene. You want revenge. I want him destroyed. You have access to him that I sorely lack. Work with me and we both get what we want.”Revenge was the last thing I wanted. I remembered the softness in his voice at the gala when he asked me to dance. Those moments, the confused feelings they bought along with them, belonged entirely to me.I didn’t want to destroy Grayson.But Corey didn’t know that. He thought he had all the cards in his hand. He didn't even stop to consider that he might not have the full story. He assumed the simple playbook: bully, victim, payback. He was arrogant.And arrogance, really, was the death of men like him.Yes, I hated Grayson. Yes, we
PRESENTSELENE’S POV:“Sel?” Bella’s voice reached me and I straigtened up from where I was hunched over the counter with a spoonful of ice cream still in my mouth.“Yes?”“There’s a gentleman here to see you.”I blinked, tossed the spoon into the sink, and glanced down at myself.I was in my sleeping pyjamas but it was the gentleman’s mistake to show up to someone’s house on such ungentlemanly hours.Still, I ran a quick hand through my hair as I headed toward the door, silently praying it wasn’t Grayson. Thought Bella would’ve never referred to him as a gentleman if it was.She stood with the door half-cracked open, her body angled in a way that blocked my view. But the moment she heard me approach, she stepped aside.I froze mid-step. Corey Allister stood on my front porch, dressed like he just got out of some meeting. His dress was spot on, his hair more so and the smile he gave Bella was the kind of smile that could undo most women in seconds.I frowned at him. “I’m sorry but wha
PASTGRAYSON’S POV:“It’s finally fucking Friday,” Josh whopped as soon as Mr. Garrison had disappeared down the curve with orders to ‘scrub every inch of graffiti off this roof’ like we were his personal cleaning crew.Josh wandered over to the ledge, arms spread wide.“I can almost taste the freedom,” he announced to the open sky. “No more detention. No more having to see all your ugly faces after school. No more scrubbing shit.”I almost saw everyone rolling their eyes in unison.“Get away from the edge, dumbass,” I snapped, yanking him back by the collar.“I’ll actually jump if you keep bossing me like this,” he said, wriggling free, an idiot grin on his face.I smacked him on the back of his head.“Good,” Maya muttered. “Save us from your whining.”Josh clutched his chest. “You wound me, Saeed.”Nathan, naturally, had climbed onto the cement railing to “inspect” the pigeon nests shoved into the corners. “We’re actually getting paid in trauma for this,” he called, leaning way too
PASTSELENE’S POV:Detention day three was in an empty classroom with blank sheets of parchment in front of us and pens we were using for anything but writing.Mr. Garrison had handed over this detention to Ms Woods, which, insanely enough, made me miss him.At least he left us alone in his detentions. Not that I was thinking about being alone, I reprimanded myself quickly when heat rushed to my neck all of a sudden.After what happened in the records room yesterday, what I had let happen, I didn’t even want to think about being alone at detention, too afraid I would find myself with Grayson again somehow.I still couldn’t come to terms with what had actually happened. Why didn’t I stop him?And as much as I tried to deny it, I was the one who initiated whatever happened yesterday.My head was spinning and I spent the entire last night turning in my bed, waking up from indecent dreams, all of them starring him and then ending up thinking about the actual thing. The heat of his body
PRESENTGRAYSON’S POV:I had not expected anyone to be home when I got back. That was mostly the case with my little apartment.It was a small two room apartment with silences almost as thick as my childhood home. This one, though, this home was one of my own making. These silences belonged entirel
PAST SELENE’S POV:“Selene Hale!” Josh Maddox sing-songed, his voice loud enough to attract the attention of the entire cafeteria.My face burned. I wanted to sink into the floor and never resurface again.Josh’s grin was so huge it looked like his face might split in two. “Finally, we meet.”My h
PASTGRAYSON’S POV:“Dude!” Nate exclaimed from the bed behind me, tossing his controller aside. It bounced twice before landing on the edge of the mattress.I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face as I whirled around in my chair to face him.“You clearly cheated,” Nathan said with a ro
PAST SELENE’S POV:Zoey picked up my call on the second ring. My world could be falling apart but I knew I could always count on her to always be meticulously consistent.“Oh, my God, finally!” Zoey exclaimed, her face popping onto my screen. Her dark almond eyes shone with mischief, her dark hair







