LOGINElona's POV
I was slowly climbing down the stairs as Mr Crane looked at me, he was smirking at me and my heart was beating fast. I just hope that he has only brought my book and will leave after this because now my secret is out. It was embarrassing enough for me. "Come inside," my dad told him.
No, that is not what I wanted. Sh^t!
"Great," Mr Crane replied and stepped inside the house in his black suit, which nearly made me drool. He had my book in his hand. I was happy about that. My dad closed the door behind him.
"So how have you been, Tristan?" my dad asked. "Would you like coffee? Beer?"
"None, I am actually here to tutor Elona for some school work," Mr Crane looked over at me, smirking.
I can feel the heat moving to my cheeks. What the hell is he doing?
"That is nice of you, where is Crislynn?" my dad asked as he walked to the kitchen. Mr Crane was about to follow after him but I stopped him by placing my hand on his arm. He looked at me, his gaze burning into me.
"What are you doing?" I whispered-shouted.
"I told you, I would be tutoring you on your essay," he kept his gaze on me for a little while longer before walking into the kitchen with my book. I hope that he won't be tutoring me in front of my dad. Oh gosh!
I quickly followed after him. "Crislynn went to SNT. She should be back in a while." Mr Crane replied to my dad.
"I will let you both sit here while I catch up on some work in the study room," dad said, and then he left after making himself coffee.
I sat down at the dinner table but there was a chair next to me and Mr Crane literally pulled that chair out and sat next to me. My book was in front of him. He opened it to where the page of my essay was placed in. He reached in his jacket pocket and took out a pen. I clasped my hands in my lap as I was nervous, not knowing what to expect from him at all.
"You will have to change some things. Firstly, the tattoo of the letter C, change it to a letter T," he stated, but I didn't do anything because he pulled a line through the C on the page and wrote a T on the top. "Now, I don't understand why you would write an essay about me, let alone your desires," he said, but when I looked at him, he was smirking as he skimmed over the a paragraph. "Let me write a new essay for you, it will not be anything s^xual because you wouldn't win this competition, but you can write about love. I think that you might have a crush on me and I am flattered," he continued to smirk. "I'm happy that I got your essay just in time. So T is a man that you have a crush on, you want him but there are certain obstacles...I will just complete it and you can rewrite it in your own words," he continued to write as I waited.
I watched as he wrote, and I wasn't sure where this was going, but I waited until he was done. As I looked at the page, it was full of paragraphs. "Thank you, Mr Crane," I said.
"Well, let me tell you what I would do," he turned to face me as I looked at him, "I would kiss you gently, and then maybe passionately, and then my hands would explore your body. You will have goosebumps all over. You would beg me for more and I would carry on until you really want me to take it further. I would..." he paused as thoughts ran through his mind now, "That person would not be you, it would be a woman who is my age, and you are too young to even be thinking about me," he changed in a split second.
"I am eighteen," I jumped in because I didn't want him to change his mind about me or was he playing with me, thinking that he wanted me?
"You may be eighteen, but I'm older than you. I can't see myself being with you, Elona. You have a whole life ahead of you and your mind cannot be clouded by thoughts or fantasies about me." he held my gaze, and it was darker now, as if a storm was brewing.
"Why did you even agree to come over here?" I asked.
"Simple. I didn't want you to make a fool of yourself and if Crislynn had to read your essay before I had, then it would've been very easy for her to connect the dots. You were writing about me. There were hints in it that gave it away. You cannot think about me. Ever." he was serious now.
I licked my lips from being dry, his gaze following my tongue as it moved over my bottom lip. I felt like I did something really bad and I'm being punished for it now. "I need another mug of coffee, the work is draining me out," Mr Crane and I snapped our heads towards my dad when he entered the kitchen.
"We are done, I have to get back home now," Mr Crane stood up and I still tried to wrap my brain around this tutoring session. He turned to face me, "I hope you win," he said.
"I will walk you out, Tristan," my dad said, and then they both left the kitchen.
My shoulders sagged with defeat and I leaned back against the chair. What the f^ck just happened? He changed in a split second all because of my age. What was I even thinking about writing a silly essay about him? Now I know that I can never have him because he is my best friend's father and he is my dad's friend. He is simply not interested in a young woman such as me. It is time that I stayed the hell away from him too, if that will make me forget about this incident.
TristanI changed out of the clothes I had worn to court as soon as I walked into my bedroom. The suit felt like it belonged to someone else now, someone who had spent the morning sitting beneath a judge’s eyes while strangers dissected pieces of my life.I pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a charcoal sweater, shoved my hands through my hair, and stood in front of the bedroom mirror for a moment. I looked tired. My face had the same hard lines it always carried, but there was something behind my eyes that hadn’t been there before. I looked like a man who had been forced to understand that money couldn’t solve everything, influence couldn’t fix everything. Sometimes you could have everything in the world and still be completely powerless. My thoughts went immediately to Elona.Tomorrow Grace would take the stand. And I was going to be there supporting Elona at her appointment too. I didn’t know what scared me more. What Grace might say. Or whatever the doctor would say at the checkup.
ElonaThe moment I stepped through the glass doors of VFS, the smell of hairspray, coffee, perfume, and fabric hit me. There was something almost comforting about it. The building was always alive in a way that made it difficult to think about anything outside of it, but also difficult to move past the fact that these girls know my life and Tristan…everything around it by now. People moved quickly from one room to another, garment bags hung from racks, assistants carried clipboards, models crossed the polished floor in heels, and somewhere in the background, a hair dryer roared continuously. Usually, I loved it, but today, I needed it. I needed the noise, something ordinary. I needed to pretend for a few hours that my life wasn’t sitting inside a courtroom.“Elona!” I turned around. One of the assistants waved me over.“Morning.”“Morning. You are needed upstairs for measurements.”“Already?” I asked in surprise.She laughed. “Apparently, you’re getting taller.”I smiled faintly. “I’d
TristanThe drive home felt longer than it should have. Reggie didn’t say much and neither did I. The city moved past the windows in a blur of glass, traffic, pedestrians, and afternoon sunlight, but I barely registered any of it. My mind was still inside that courtroom. Grace’s face, Alex’s confidence, and the judge’s voice.By the time Reggie pulled into my driveway, my shoulders were so tense they hurt. He put the car into park but didn’t immediately switch off the engine. “You need to breathe,” he said.“I’m breathing,” I replied.“You’re barely doing it.” I could feel his eyes on me.I looked through the windshield. “I don’t know what the hell we are going to do.” I still didn’t feel like we could win this case.“We are going to prepare.”“For tomorrow?” I asked.“For everything.”I turned towards him. “She takes the stand tomorrow, and she gets to tell them whatever she wants.”“She gets to testify.” He said as a matter of fact.“That’s what I said.” My blood began to boil just
TristanThe courthouse smelled like old paper, polished wood, and fear. I didn’t know how else to describe it. Maybe it was because fear had become the only thing I could taste since I walked through those doors. It sat at the back of my throat, bitter and metallic, no matter how many times I swallowed.I sat beside Reggie on one of the hard wooden benches outside the courtroom, my hands clasped between my knees, staring at the closed doors ahead of us. I hadn’t looked across the hallway once. I knew Grace was there. I could feel her presence without seeing her and that was the problem, every part of me wanted to look.I wanted to know whether she was nervous. Whether she was sorry. Whether she was sitting there with the same confidence she had when she first made those accusations. I wanted to see her face and find some indication…anything, that she understood what she had done, but I refused because I knew myself.If I looked at Grace, I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep the disgu
ElonaThe studio had emptied surprisingly quickly. Only the distant sound of hairdryers and voices carried faintly through the hallways now. Stylists were packing away equipment, assistants wheeled garment racks towards storage, and somewhere nearby, someone laughed loudly enough for it to echo through the otherwise quiet floor.I adjusted the strap of my gym bag over my shoulder before reaching down to pick up my water bottle.“Elona.” I looked up. Madame stood near the doorway to her office, one hand resting against the glass frame. “I need a moment.”My stomach tightened instinctively. “Of course.” I followed her into her office. She closed the door behind us.“You may sit.” I lowered myself into one of the chairs opposite her desk.She remained standing for a moment, sorting through several large black portfolios before selecting one. Without saying anything, she placed it in front of me.I frowned. “What is this?”“Open it.” I carefully lifted the cover. Inside were concept sketc
ElonaThe elevator doors slid open onto the fifth floor of VFS, and I stepped out with my gym bag slung over one shoulder. The polished white floors reflected the overhead lights so perfectly that it almost hurt to look at them. Everything inside this building was pristine, perfect, and spotless. Nothing inside me felt the same.My body moved on instinct more than anything else. One foot in front of the other. I smiled when someone looked my way. I kept my shoulders back. I kept my chin level. This was me being a model, surviving on repeat.My phone felt heavier than usual inside my bag.Rowan Patel is dead.No matter how many times I replayed Tristan’s message in my mind, the words refused to settle into something believable. Rowan had been alive two days ago. He had been sitting across the dinner table from us, having dinner while Tristan argued with him. Now he was gone.I swallowed the lump growing in my throat and continued to walk towards the changing rooms. Heels were striking p







