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.
Tristan's POVI leaned back against the wall beside the front door, the coolness pressing into my spine, my head falling against the surface as if gravity had suddenly doubled. The courthouse air still clung to me, the heaviness and the suffocating air. The murmurs of reporters, the clicking of cameras, the whispers of strangers who thought they knew me still echoed inside my skull.I dragged a hand down my face. I scoffed at the thought that Rowan didn’t show. The judge had granted another chance, but the damage was done. The headlines would spin it as avoidance, guilt and fear.I pushed off the wall and walked further into the lounge. My phone rang. I took it out of my pocket. It was Cris. I swallowed before answering. “Hey.”Her voice came through sharp and strained. “Dad… did you see the news?”“No,” I muttered
Tristan's POVThe courthouse hallway smelled like polished wood and something stale underneath it like secrets that had been sitting too long. It felt like the kind of place where lives unraveled in whispers instead of screams.I paced. Back and forth. Back and forth.Maria stood near one of the tall windows, her tablet tucked under her arm, her phone pressed against her ear for the fourth time.“Rowan, call me back. Immediately,” she said sharply before hanging up again. She exhaled through her nose. “Straight to voicemail. Again.” She was growing frustrated as well.My jaw tightened. Rowan never missed hearings except with me for my prelim hearings. I do remember he missed a court case once for someone else. He had shown up with a fractured wrist, which meant this wasn’t forgetfulness. It was deliberate or something had gone very wrong. But given the fact that he missed my previous hear
Tristan's POVThe shouting followed me all the way up the driveway. Questions were still thrown like stones. Accusations sharpened by lenses and microphones. My name was being mangled into headlines before I even stepped out of the car.“Mr. Crane, did you intimidate Grace?”“Are you planning to apologize publicly?”“Is it true she was underage when you-”I didn’t slow down. The gates slid shut behind me with a metallic finality that felt like oxygen rushing back into my lungs, but even then, the noise lingered, it was echoing, clinging to my skin like sweat I couldn’t wash off. Cameras flashed through the bars. Voices rose. It was a chant of speculation and judgment.I got out of my car, still ignoring those vultures. Walking up the few steps, I unlocked the front door, stepped inside, and slam
Tristan's POVThe courtroom smelled like old wood and polished floors, it was suffocating and unforgiving. Every breath I took felt borrowed, like the air itself didn’t belong to me anymore. My stomach twisted violently, a slow churn that made me nauseous, and I kept my jaw locked tight, terrified that if I opened my mouth, something humiliating would spill out. A groan, a gasp, a confession I don’t even know I was holding.This wasn't my world. Boardrooms and silent wars fought over contracts and numbers... I know those rooms. I thrive there. But this? This place strips you bare without ever touching you.I sat rigid on the hard bench, my hands clasped together so tightly that my knuckles had gone white. My leg bounces uncontrollably, a betrayal I can&rsq
Elona's POVI didn’t think leaving would feel like this.I stood in the hallway in my VFS uniform which was black leggings clinging to my legs, the cropped top tight across my ribs, it felt like I was wearing the wrong skin. My body ached in places I didn’t know could ache except for my Endo, but it was nothing compared to the hollow pressure sitting behind my breastbone.Tristan lifted one of my bags from the floor, and then another. His movements were controlled and too precise, like if he slowed down, something inside him would split open. I watched him when he wasn’t looking. Dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes. His jaw was tense, the strength in his shoulders weighed down by something invisible and heavy. He looked older this morning, not by years but by loss.“It’s okay,” he said quietly, as if reading my thoughts. He turned toward
Tristan's POVThe house was too quiet after Rowan left. The kind of quiet that didn’t settle but scraped along your nerves, like the silence itself was mocking you, yet the tension was still in the air. Camille was still sitting at my table with a wine glass balanced in her hand, a smirk carved into her lips like it was permanent. I didn’t bother hiding my irritation. I leaned against the wall as I crossed my arms, and let my eyes cut through her.“You’re a pain in my ass, Camille.”Her smirk widened. She swirled the wine in her glass, the liquid catching the light. “At least I live up to my last name.”I pinched the bridge of my nose, exhaling hard through my teeth. She had always been like this, quick, sharp, infuriating. But now, with her suddenly shoved into my house under Rowan’s so-called authority and the amended Will, the air fe







