MasukI don't go to my own department first.I go straight to the Performing Arts building.I'd looked up Felicity Montgomery's schedule the night before — old journalist habit, never walk into a confrontation without knowing your terrain. She has a large lecture in Meridian Hall at nine. Two hundred seats, tiered rows, the kind of class that empties like a burst dam the second the bell rings.I'm standing at the bottom of the steps when it does.Students flood out around me, and I feel the exact moment the whispers start. A girl near the door clocks me first, nudges her friend, and suddenly there's a ripple of recognition spreading outward like I've dropped something in still water.I hear "black lotus" twice before I've taken three steps. I hear "green tea" once. I keep my chin level and my eyes forward.Then I see her.Felicity Montgomery, descending the stairs with two friends flanking her like a security detail, hair perfect, chin high, wearing the specific expression of someone who we
I sit with it for a minute.The vote totals. The gap that's closed overnight. The fact that by some miracle of ballot-stuffing, Felicity Montgomery now leads the female poll by fifty thousand votes and the gap is so clean and so sudden that it could only mean one thing — she paid for it.And here's the thing I notice first, the thing that surprises even me:I'm not upset.I let out a slow breath and actually feel my shoulders drop an inch. No more stage play. No more standing opposite Adam Hart under a spotlight while half of Ashford University films it on their phones and posts theories about what it means. No more navigating that minefield while Liam watches from a distance, expressionless, processing.Felicity wants it that badly? Fine. She can have it.I close the forum app.Then I notice the notif
We've been sitting in the booth long enough that the lunch crowd has thinned out and our drinks have gone warm, but neither of us is in a hurry to leave. There's something about what Chloe just told me — the weight of it, the quiet devastation — that makes me want to stay right here, in this small anonymous restaurant, a little longer.Then she shifts gears completely."Oh — I almost forgot." She pulls out her phone, scrolling. "Have you checked the Ashford forum lately?"I stare at her. "I would rather eat glass."She almost smiles. "You might want to make an exception. Your name is all over the National Collegiate Arts Showcase voting poll. You're leading by a lot, Allie. Like, a lot a lot."I blink. "The what?""The Showcase." She turns her phone toward me. "You seriously don't know about this?"I take her phone, squinting at the screen. "I was on a film set for the entire summer, Chloe. I missed approxim
I don't have many classes this semester, which is either a blessing or a curse depending on how much empty time I want to spend inside my own head.I grab my textbooks from the department office, stuff them into my bag, and decide there's no reason to stick around campus any longer than necessary. Not with the way people keep staring at me like I'm a headline they're still trying to finish reading.I'm almost to the front gate when I hear my name."Allie!"I turn, and there's Chloe West — slight, soft-spoken, wearing a light blue cardigan that makes her look younger than she is — hurrying toward me with her own stack of books pressed against her chest like a shield.Something in my chest loosens just seeing her."Chloe." I fall into step beside her naturally. "Please tell me you're not going back to the dorms yet."She shakes her head. "I was thinking grilled fish, actually.""Done. Let's go."The rest
Liam has never been able to explain it — not even to himself.Women have never been his weakness. Not once, not ever. Even Mia Stone, with all her calculated beauty and calculated proximity, had never made him feel a single thing he didn't choose to feel.He'd started to wonder, quietly, privately, if the problem was him. If something fundamental was just — missing.Then that night happened.And whatever had been sleeping inside him woke up like something feral, like a beast that had been in a cage so long it had forgotten the cage had a door. The moment she fell into his arms at Midnight Black, something cracked open in his chest that he still doesn't have a name for.He'd watched her sleep afterward. The whole night, he didn't close his eyes once.She curled up like a cat, one hand tucked under her cheek, lashes dark against her skin, and Liam had sat there in the dark asking himself the same question on a loop.Why her?He still doesn't have a clean answer. He's not a man who belie
I wish the floor would open up and swallow me whole.That's the only thought running through my head as Liam's words hang in the air between us, calm and deliberate, like he's had them rehearsed for months. Maybe he has. Maybe that's the worst part."You don't remember any of it," he says. It's not a question."I—" I press my lips together. "No."It's humiliating to admit. But lying to Liam Hart has never worked out well for me, and I'm tired of trying.The thing is, I've always told myself we were both wrecked that night. That neither of us was fully present. That it was a collision of two people who didn't know better.But then a thought cuts through the embarrassment like cold water."Wait." I turn to look at him. "Didn't Preston literally call you a tank tonight? Said you never get drunk?"Liam blinks."He called you a god," I press on. "His exact words. God of Alcohol. And you downed half a bottle of that top-shelf whiskey like it was water. Mia took two sips and lost her entire
When Liam Hart proposed to her, she had wrestled with a single question in her heart.A man so distant, so untouchable—could she ever truly reach him?Even then, she had suspected that Liam’s feelings weren’t as deep as they seemed. As Adam once warned her, perhaps the proposal was merely a matter
2:00 AM.The exclusive VIP lounge of "Nocturne," the most sought-after bar in town.Three men lounged around a glass table, their eyes fixed on Liam Hart, who sat in a single-seater sofa, silent and brooding. The dim, golden glow of the room barely softened the sharp tension in the air.Preston Whi
"Don’t go. Liam Hart left Oceanview Heights early this morning," Julian Ford said.Allie Brooks froze mid-step. "How do you know?""I went to return the dress last night. Mia Stone left too. She left with Liam."Allie’s breath caught. The little black dress—Julian had borrowed it from Mia. She had
Liam Hart had just finished changing clothes when the whispers around the set grew louder.“What’s going on between Allie and Mr. Hart?” someone murmured.“Isn’t Liam supposed to marry Mia Stone? Why would he take the initiative to shoot an intimate scene with Allie in front of Mia?”“I heard Allie







