LOGINLUCAS'S POV"Sit down."Lucas said it quietly and both of them sat.Sebastian on the left side of the sofa. Eli on the right. Both of them looking at him with expressions that told him they already knew more than they were letting on and he appreciated that about them even right now at this particular moment when appreciation was not the dominant feeling in the room.He looked at his hands folded on his knee for a moment.Then he looked up."She called me at two o clock this afternoon." He disclosed. "I was in the middle of marking papers." He paused. "She was very calm about it. Very measured. Very Selena." He looked at Eli directly. "She told me about the clause. About the filing. About the reputational damage argument." He paused. "She presented it like she was doing me a favour by telling me early."Eli said nothing."She also told me." Lucas continued carefully. "That she had spoken to a lawyer who believed the filing had a strong chance of proceeding given the fraternity investi
SEBASTIAN'S POV"Did you know?"Those three words sat in the corridor between us and I looked at Eli standing there with his phone in his hand and Devon's voice still echoing in the air and felt everything I had been building crack straight down the middle."Eli." I started."Answer the question." He said quietly. Not loud. Not angry. Just flat and direct and completely still the way Eli got when something had genuinely landed."It is not what Devon is making it sound like." I insisted."I did not ask what Devon is making it sound like." He pressed. "I asked if you knew."I looked at him.He looked back at me.The corridor was empty around us. Late afternoon light coming through the far window. The whole building quiet."I knew Devon was planning something that night." I disclosed. "I did not know specifically what. I did not know about the drink." I paused. "I knew something was going to happen and I did not stop it."Eli said nothing."I was laughing because Devon made a joke." I co
SEBASTIAN'S POV"Close the door."Mr George did not look up from his desk when we walked in. His reading glasses were on, a thick folder open in front of him, three different documents spread across the surface with handwritten notes in the margins.Eli closed the door.We sat down.Mr George still did not look up. He turned one page. Then another. His pen moving across the margin in that small precise script of his. The office completely quiet except for the scratch of it and the heating and the clock on the wall."Sir." I pressed carefully."One moment." He said flatly.We waited.He turned one more page, wrote something, capped his pen, and looked up at us over his glasses."The fraternity investigation documentation." He disclosed, tapping the folder. "Specifically the section relating to the Hale family's institutional connections with this university." He paused. "Your mother has three named positions on this university's external advisory board Sebastian."I stared at him. "Thr
ELI'S POV"Sunday dinner."Jasmine repeated it slowly across the cafeteria table, her fork suspended halfway to her mouth, her eyes wide."Sunday dinner." I confirmed."Selena." She pressed."Selena." I confirmed."Arranged it after Bianca cancelled Thursday lunch." She pressed."Within twenty minutes." I confirmed.She put her fork down."Eli." She whispered. "That woman is terrifying.""I know." I acknowledged."Like genuinely." She pressed. "Clinically. Terrifyingly strategic.""I know Jasmine." I said flatly."And you are going." She pressed."We are all going." I disclosed. "Sebastian. Bianca. Lucas. Me. Sunday evening."She picked her fork back up slowly, chewing thoughtfully, watching my face with those sharp eyes of hers that never missed anything."How is Sebastian handling it?" She inquired."Tightly." I replied."Meaning?" She pressed."Meaning he has that jaw thing happening constantly." I replied. "And he keeps checking his phone every four minutes waiting for her to chan
SEBASTIAN'S POV"Alternative arrangements."I stared at Bianca's message on my phone and felt something cold move through my chest."What does that mean?" Eli noted from beside me, reading over my shoulder."It means she knew." I noted. "About the dissolution. About Bianca leaving. She knew this morning before she called me.""Before she suggested Thursday lunch." Eli noted."Yes." I confirmed.We were standing outside the east lecture building where Bianca's message had reached us mid conversation and the campus was moving normally around us completely indifferent to the fact that everything had just shifted again."She planned the lunch knowing Bianca was already leaving." Eli noted."Yes." I confirmed."Which means the lunch was never about finding out how much I matter to you." Eli noted. "She already knows that.""Yes." I confirmed."So what is it actually about?" He pressed.I looked at him."The clause." I noted. "Bianca told you about the clause.""Yes." Eli confirmed."Then y
BIANCA'S POV"She called him this morning."I dropped onto the bench beside Eli outside the literature building and he looked up from his book with that specific expression he wore when he already knew what somebody was about to say and was deciding whether he wanted to hear it."I know." He closed his book. "I was there.""On speaker." I noted."Yes." He confirmed."In the middle of the courtyard." I noted."Also yes." He confirmed.I looked at him for a moment. He looked back at me with those steady eyes of his that gave very little away and I had learned over the past weeks that the less Eli gave away the more was actually happening underneath it."You told him Thursday works." I noted."Word travels fast." He noted."Sebastian called me approximately four seconds after you walked away." I told him. "He was not calm about it.""Sebastian is never calm about anything involving his mother." Eli noted."He has a point this time." I insisted. "Selena does not do casual lunch Eli. She d
SEBASTIAN'S POVI had walked out of the house just before the emotions buried deep within me would explode. I couldn't even control myself anymore. And why the heck was I getting pissed off just because he couldn't understand me? Wasn't it better he was left in the dark? That this feelings of min
ELI'S POV Sebastain had completely zoned out as he stood here. His eyes were fixed on me but I was sure as hell he wasn't listening to a thing I was saying. First he was already dressed for the hearing and now he his acting all weird? “Are you alright?” I muttered softly, as I walked towards him.
ELI'S POVAN HOUR BEFORE SEBASTAIN CAME INThe familar ringing tone of my phone buzzed for the umpteenth time, it was the same caller and the same number. I stared at my phone's screen unsure of what to do to make it stop.If I ended the call, she was going to call again. If I picked up the call th
SEBASTIAN'S POV My eyes lingered in his eyes slowly dropping down to his lips - those plumb red strawberries liked lips…. I'm was allergic to strawberries but I badly wanted a taste of these ones. I bit my lower lips seductively trying to subdue the groan erupting from my throat. Why was I even







