FAZER LOGINDarius POV
From the corner where Rylan and I were observing, I watched the whole thing unfold.
We had come in a few minutes behind Eliana — different entrance, keeping the distance she'd asked for, honoring the whole *I don't want people to know we live together* arrangement she'd made very clear this morning. Which I had respected. I was respecting it.
What I was finding harder to respect was standing here with my arms fold
Sara's POVAt the homecoming party, everything was just in place, just like a party was needed to be.The venue had been decorated exactly the way I had envisioned it — fairy lights everywhere, the kind that made everything look expensive and intentional, a DJ set up at the far end working through a playlist that had the right balance of current and crowd-pleasing, tables arranged with actual thought put into them rather than the usual thrown-together effort that passed for event planning at most school functions. The merry, the bubbling and the fun were giving every single vibe that a homecoming party was meant to give.And I was in the middle of all of it, exactly where I was supposed to be.This had been the plan since the moment the homecoming announcement went up. Not just to attend. Not just to show up and be seen. To own it. To make every element of tonight point back to me — the d
Darius POVFrom the corner where Rylan and I were observing, I watched the whole thing unfold.We had come in a few minutes behind Eliana — different entrance, keeping the distance she'd asked for, honoring the whole *I don't want people to know we live together* arrangement she'd made very clear this morning. Which I had respected. I was respecting it.What I was finding harder to respect was standing here with my arms folded watching Sara Owen perform for an audience at Eliana's expense like it was a sport she'd been training for.The laughter from the students around them kept coming in waves. Each one a little louder than the last because crowds did that — fed off each other, built momentum, got bolder the more the other person stayed still and absorbed it. And Eliana was standing there taking it, which I understood, I could see the calculation in it — but every second that pass
Rylan's POVIt was Monday morning and Darius and I were already dressed and ready to go to school but were still waiting for our cars to be ready.The house had that specific early morning quiet to it — not peaceful exactly, more like the kind of silence that existed before the day decided what kind of day it was going to be. I had already eaten — or done what passed for eating in my case, which was a different matter entirely — and was standing in the sitting room doing nothing in particular while Darius leaned against a stool nearby, doing the same.So, I decided to sip some water from the glass I was holding while Darius stood beside the stool in the sitting room, looking like he was thinking about something he wasn't going to share.He had used a lot of energy over the weekend. I had watched it happen and said nothing — the full moon did what it did to wolves, and Darius being Darius had pushed through it rather than acknowledging it. The result was sitting right there in the sligh
Eliana's POVI got to the particular hospital where my mum was as fast as my legs could carry me, the moment I alighted from the taxi.The ride over had been its own kind of torture — sitting in the back of that cab watching the streets pass outside the window, phone still warm in my hand from the call, the doctor's words playing on a loop in my head that I couldn't find the off switch for. *The Ethics board just ruled against us. They are pulling the plug tonight.* Over and over. Each time landing with the same weight as the first time, like my brain was refusing to absorb it properly and kept making me hear it again.Tears already filled my eyes before I even got inside.And then I saw my mum.Not in the ward. In the corridor. Her bed had been moved out of the ward and into the hallway — like she was already in the process of being removed, like the decision had alr
Darius POV"You know, maybe me and you could just have dinner together." I said it in a tone that came out closer to seductive than I had planned, and in the same breath I moved my hand to the fridge drawer and closed it casually — like the whole thing had been one smooth, connected motion and not a desperate recovery from nearly letting her open it.She blinked at me. "Yeah…" She started, then continued through the slight stutter. "…but I mean, I don't want Rylan to just be hungry since he couldn't eat the meal. So, I can just quickly fix something else for dinner for everyone. It's fine, I'll—"She turned back to the fridge and reached for the handle again.My hand was already on it.I felt her register that before she fully turned to look at me — the resistance of the drawer not moving, the presence of my hand holding it where it was — and
Darius POVIn no time, Eliana came forward with the food as we were already at the dining table.The smell reached us before she did — and I mean that in two completely different ways. For me, it smelled like an actually good meal cooked by someone who knew what they were doing. For Rylan, sitting across from me with that carefully maintained expression he thought was unreadable, it smelled like a problem.I could already see it. The slight stiffness that had entered his posture the moment she rounded the corner with the plates. The way his jaw had tightened by exactly one degree. The very controlled effort he was putting into breathing normally, which told me he was putting effort into breathing normally, which told me the garlic had already reached him and was doing exactly what I had planned for it to do.I looked away before he could catch me looking."Guess what I made







