LOGINJasmine“A trip?” Laura nearly shrieked, dropping her iPad onto the desk with a loud thud. She slammed both palms down, leaning halfway across the table. “What do you mean, a trip? Jasmine Vance, where is he taking you?”I held up my hands, stifling a laugh as I shut my laptop. “I don’t know all the details yet, okay? He just told me to pack a small bag for a couple of days on a yacht and that he’d have a car ready for us by four.”Laura’s eyes widened, her mouth forming a perfect, dramatic O. She gasped, clutching her chest.“The yacht! Oh my God, Jasmine! Do you remember? Months ago, back when we were literally swooning over his photos on the internet and fantasizing about what his actual dating life looked like, we said he was the type to take a girl on a ridiculously lavish yacht date!”“Oh wow!” My eyes widened in realization. “We actually said that!”“I swear on everything, Jasmine. I swear on my life, I didn’t tell Sebastian!” Laura insisted, pointing an accusing finger at the
VictoriaI let out an exasperated sigh as I got into the limousine. My face was set in a deep scowl, and my knuckles were white from how tightly I was clutching the fleece blanket around my shoulders. Beneath it, the front of my pastel pink dress was ruined, a dark red, ugly splotch. There was no saving the dress.“You acted like a hysterical animal, Victoria,” my mother said through clenched teeth. That was the only sign of the intense anger she was feeling inside. She sat perfectly erect in the back seat, one leg crossed over the other, staring straight out the tinted window, her back rigid.I swallowed, taking a moment to calm myself.“Mother, she—”“Quiet.” She didn’t even turn her head. “I don’t care what excuse you have. You stood in the center of a high-society event, one we attended to clean the dirt off our name, the dirt your sleazy half-brother brought upon us.”There it was, the jab at Jason. It wasn’t a typical Eleanor rant if there wasn’t a jab directed at him.“You pour
JasonI walked through the grand doors of the Sterling Mansion. Victoria’s face pulled into a frown as soon as she saw me. She was sitting in the living room.“Victoria,” I said, taking a step toward her. “Come on. Are we really still doing this?”She didn’t even spare me a glance.“I said I was sorry,” I tried again, stepping into her space and reaching out to touch her arm. “The other day, it was just a slip of the tongue. You know I didn’t mean—”The sound of approaching footsteps caused us both to look up instantly. A housemaid walked past carrying a tray of fresh linens, bowing her head quickly as she scurried by.I instantly froze, snapping my hand away and clearing my throat dramatically.Victoria didn’t even flinch. She rose to her feet and walked away, her heels clicking loudly against the marble floor.I let out a long exhale before marching out into the garden to find Eleanor.She was standing near the manicured rose bushes, holding a pair of golden shears. Two maids stood
Sebastian“She’s perfect, isn’t she?”I reclined in my leather executive chair as I stared at the pictures on my laptop. It was the image from the photoshoot with Jasmine and Cassie. Jasmine was standing in the center of the frame, a pretty smile on her face, glowing like an actual goddess while her stepsister looked like a confused statue beside her.“Who, sir?”I blinked, snapping out of my trance. My executive assistant, Mark, was standing beside my desk, holding a heavy stack of documents in his hands and looking at me with a completely bewildered expression.I quickly cleared my throat, adjusting the cuffs of my suit jacket.“The... details in the photo, Mark. The lighting, the simplicity of the style. It’s...” I flicked my fingers as I searched for the word. “Exceptional.”“Ah. Right,” Mark said slowly, setting the files down on the desk. “The Vance Global PR metrics are up by forty percent following yesterday’s release.”My eyes drifted back to Jasmine’s face on the screen. My
Jasmine“Yes! Hold that angle, Jasmine! You are glowing! Absolute perfection!” Laura’s voice echoed through the room as the camera shutter clicked continuously. “Isn’t she perfect?” She muttered to one of the crew members nearby, who nodded in agreement.I shifted my weight to one leg and stared straight at the camera with a smoldering gaze. One of the crew members tilted the light toward my face. I wore a simple white T-shirt and casual jeans. My dark hair had been curled to perfection, paired with minimal makeup.“Yes, baby girl, pose for me. I want to see that smile...”I bowed my head, a soft laugh escaping my lips.“Yes, p-p-perfect...” the photographer drawled.Maybe it was because of Laura’s praise, but I was in the zone. I was hitting five poses a minute.Next to me, Cassie looked like a hostage in a ransom video.She had on a similar plain white T-shirt and denim jeans, but with a full face of heavy makeup. Now, as the photographer adjusted his lens, she stood beside me, her
JasmineI sat on the edge of my bed, staring at my phone screen with a wicked grin.My thumb hovered over the Post button. I had dug up an old, dusty photograph from the family archives—a picture of me when I was eight years old, standing in the mansion’s garden holding a bouquet of wild lilies. Beside it, I added a recent picture of Cassie from her public profile.The caption read:Recreating childhood memories! Tagging my sister @CassieVanceOfficial—let’s do a sister photoshoot today at the Vance house! What do you guys think? Should we do matching outfits?I tapped post.Within thirty seconds, the comments started flooding in by the hundreds.“OMG YES! Sister goals!”“We need this photoshoot ASAP!”“Jasmine is being so sweet to her!”I looked up at Laura, who was leaning against the vanity, holding two phones and rocking back and forth on her heels like a kid on Christmas morning."It’s trending," Laura whispered, her eyes sparkling. "The comments are going insane. People are alrea
Jason“Smile, Jason,” Victoria hissed under her breath, her fingers digging into the sleeve of my tuxedo. “The cameras on the left are watching us.”I loosened my jaw, plastering a stiff, practiced smile across my face as we walked down the red carpet of the Grand Imperial Gala. Flashbulbs went off
Jason“Are you that dumb, Jason?” Eleanor screamed. This was the first time I had seen her in a state of disarray. She was always perfect, not a hair out of place. Now, her clothes were damp, and her hair was sticking to her forehead as she paced the marble floor of the foyer. The storm outside was
JasmineThe car was still on the inside, but outside, it was the complete opposite. The rain lashed against the bulletproof windows, blurring my view of the city.And then I finally broke.The cold mask I had worn in the penthouse and on the driveway crumbled. I pulled my knees to my chest, buried
JasmineThe background jazz music was soothing as it wafted through the large dining hall. I found myself humming along until…“Another glass of the Dom Pérignon, Madame Sterling?” the waiter asked in a thick French accent, tilting the bottle. “Mr. Sterling is delayed, but there is no reason the ni







