LOGINEthan stood up from the bed and looked between them with the easy composure of someone who knows when a room no longer needs him.“You’re here,” he said to Zane. “I’ll leave you two to it.” He glanced at Lilly briefly. “Take care of yourself.”He walked out.Zane watched him go, then crossed the room and crouched down in front of Lilly, bringing himself to her level. He looked at her properly — not the quick social scan he gave most situations, but the actual kind of looking.“What happened, Mauli? You were fine twenty minutes ago.” He paused. “I looked around and you were gone. What happened?”She looked at her hands. “I just — I remembered something.”“Something like what?”She turned it over in her mind — whether to tell him, how much, where to start — and then her phone rang.She looked at the screen.Mum.“I need to take this,” she said. “Could you step outside for a minute?”“Yeah.” He stood. “Take your time. Text me after.”She nodded.He pulled the door mostly closed behind hi
“Why is your arm on me like that?”Lilly turned to look at Zane with the specific expression she reserved for things that required immediate correction.Zane didn’t move his arm. “Relax. We need to make this convincing.” He glanced toward the front of the classroom. “Besides — he’s not even looking at us right now.”Ethan was sitting a few seats ahead, turned slightly away, apparently absorbed in something on his desk.Zane picked up the water bottle beside him and threw it toward the front of the room.The entire class turned.Ethan turned with them — and his eyes landed on Zane and Lilly, close together, Zane’s arm draped casually across the back of her chair. Something shifted in his expression. Not nothing. Definitely not nothing.“See?” Zane said quietly, eyes forward. “Told you.”Lilly kept her face neutral and felt quietly triumphant. “You’re going to make this work, aren’t you.”“Obviously.”Across the room, Hannah and Dave exchanged a look — the look of two people who have be
Lilly stood outside the door and told herself she was not nervous.She knocked.Elliot opened it — looked at her, registered that she was pretty, and produced the particular smirk of someone filing information away for later use.“Hi. I’m Lilly. Zane’s tutor. I came to see him.”“Come in, come in.” He stepped aside with the easy hospitality of someone who considers all visitors equally welcome regardless of context. “Stay here — I’ll have him downstairs in a minute.”She stepped inside and looked around.Trophies everywhere. On shelves, on surfaces, lined up with the casual abundance of people who win things so regularly they’ve stopped finding places to put them. Hockey gear. Photographs. The comfortable disorder of a house shared by people who spend most of their time elsewhere.“Hi.”She turned.A girl stood a few feet away — slightly boyish in her style, sharp-eyed, looking at Lilly with the direct assessing gaze of someone who makes it their business to know things.Is this Jade?
Saturday?” Lilly asked.“Practice,” Zane said, settling himself on the counter with the easy comfort of someone who considers every surface a valid seat.“Today?”“Evening practice.”“Thursday?”“Practice.”“Friday?”“Music classes.” He looked at her. “See — we’re both busy. This is going to be harder to arrange than I thought.”Lilly came around the counter and stood in front of him. “So when exactly—”“Sunday,” he said. “My place.”She looked at him. “Your place? What if your girlfriend walks in?”“Girlfriend.” He said the word the way one might say a word in a foreign language they don’t speak. “That is genuinely not in my vocabulary. I don’t do that.” He paused. “And yes, it has to be my place — because the person we need to convince lives nearby and she needs to see it with her own eyes.”“Who?”“My best friend’s younger sister. Jade.” He said the name with the particular weight of someone explaining a complicated force of nature. “She runs information on this campus better than
Zane’s POV“Open.”Blade pushed the door before he’d finished the word, which was exactly what Blade always did.“What do you want, man?”“Am I not allowed in my best friend’s room?” Blade dropped against the door frame. “Your father came by earlier. Didn’t find you. Said pick up his calls.”Zane’s jaw tightened. “If it’s about my father, you can leave. Right now.”“Man, you can’t keep running from—”“Blade.” His voice was quiet and completely final. “We have been through this more times than I can count. I am tired of having it. Please.”Blade held up both hands. “Fine. I give up.” He paused at the door. “Your girlfriend is downstairs by the way.”“You know I don’t date.”“Okay — your situationship. Rue.”Something in Zane’s expression shifted. “Rue? It’s been a minute.” He got up. “Tell her I’m coming down.”Blade left. Zane followed.Downstairs, Rue crossed the room the moment she saw him, arms going straight around his neck, warm and familiar.“I missed you,” she said.“Oh really.
She was late.Not catastrophically late — just enough to push open the music room door to find everyone already seated and playing, their instruments filling the room with the particular organised chaos of a warm-up session already in progress. Several heads turned. Lilly smiled apologetically at no one in particular, made her way to her seat, pulled out her saxophone, and joined in as smoothly as she could manage.The teacher did not look impressed.When the session ended and students began filing out, his voice cut through the noise.“Lilly. Stay behind please.”She stayed, saxophone across her lap, wearing the expression of someone who already knows what kind of conversation this is going to be.“If it’s about being late, sir—” she began.“It’s partly about being late.”“I have a solution for that, actually. I found a shortcut across campus today. It won’t happen again — or if it does, significantly less often. I promise.”He looked at her with the patient expression of a man who h
Days passed.Since she had started living in the Ashford mansion, mornings had slowly found a rhythm. That morning, soft sunlight filtered through the curtains as Zara stood behind Lilly, gently combing through her hair. The little girl sat still, humming quietly, her school uniform already on.She
Adrian sat alone at the café, his fingers tapping restlessly against the porcelain cup in front of him. He hated waiting. More than that, he hated Dante and he didn’t even know when that hatred had grown this deep. Yet here he was, answering his call.The door finally opened, and Dante walked in, u
“Is she dead?” Rosey asked.Adrian looked guilty. “I really don’t know if she’s dead or not. But what I do know ” he paused, his voice unsteady, “ I clearly saw Dante run her over. I don’t think she survived.”Rosey sighed.He was in Rosey’s room. She had started staying at Ashford’s mansion with M
“I invited her,” Victor said evenly, “because she saved my life. That means I carry her blood in me as well. She deserves to be here tonight.”Rosey’s fingers tightened around the glass of wine she was holding. Her smile stayed in place, but it didn’t reach her eyes.“Oh… is that so, big brother?”







