SCARLETI cringed, almost squealing. I then immediately turned off my phone with my shaking fingers. My heartbeat raced. It couldn’t be him. It was too long ago. He would never come here. He had already left.“Hey, what’s wrong?” Katherine elbowed me on the side.“Huh?” I glanced at her. “Nothing.”“Nothing?” Katherine grabbed my hand. “Your hands are shaking. What’s wrong?”“I said I’m fine, Katherine Collins!” I snapped.“Scarlet,” she said softly. “Calm down.”“Miss Carter, is there a problem?” Our professor’s voice echoed through the whole room. Dozens of eyes shifted to me. Damn. I forgot I was still in the classroom.“Nothing. I’m sorry, Mr. Donald. I’m sorry.”The professor cleared his throat. “Eyes back at the screen. All of you.”“We will talk later,” Katherine hissed, and she set her eyes back on her laptop’s screen.After the class, we came out of the classroom and headed to the next lesson. Katherine was watching me as if waiting for me to speak. But I remained quiet. I st

SCARLETIt was three days before the Harvard Commencement Day; Mom surprised me with her early arrival. She was even more excited than I was. She wanted to help me choose my graduation dress and volunteered to do my hair and makeup. Thomas didn’t come with Mom. He said he was busy, but he promised to attend my graduation.Thomas had changed ever since the day he found out about my secret. The same day I learned that he was hurting his son physically. He wasn’t the same man who called me just to check if I was alright or needed something. Nothing.Mom called Luke over the phone, and she asked him if he was coming to my graduation. He agreed, of course, but he was still in London, probably devouring someone else’s pussy.A few days ago, I found photos of him with a mysterious blonde on the internet. They were attending a corporate gala, and he was unlikely to be found on the news with a woman. I stopped talking to him after that day.I didn’t want to Google him because of my stalking te

SCARLETThomas asked me to talk to him upstairs after we ate. Mom volunteered to wash the plates, so I came upstairs and followed Thomas to Luke’s office. Thomas was sitting in Luke’s chair when I found him. He put down the book he was holding.“Scarlet.” He said, “Come here.”I nodded. I sat on the chair in front of him.“I heard you’re leaving on the day of your graduation?”“How did you know?”“I know a lot of things, Scarlet,” he said, but he kept his voice low and calm.“Yes. I am going with my friend Katherine.”“I can help you and your friend. I’ll purchase a house for you, so you don’t need to rent, and I’ll provide everything you might need.”“That’s very generous, Thomas.” But I couldn’t stop asking myself, how did he know? I bit my lower lip. “But I’m sure Katherine already has a place for us.”“Just do what I say, Scarlet,” he pressed.“Why are you doing this? I don’t understand at all.”“I don’t want you to think that I want you to leave. You are my daughter now, and I wi

SCARLETIt was my graduation today, and my fellow students and their parents filled the university ground. I could hear the loud excited voices everywhere. The rows of seats were full; I joined the students with the surname beginning with C. I was in the fourth row. I spotted Katherine in the same row, but she was at the end of the line since her surname was Collins. Thomas, Luke, and Mom were in the bleachers. I knew they were watching me.At precisely ten, the senior professors arrived, decked out in their black and crimson regalia. We stood and applauded the teaching staff. One of them was the Chancellor; he stepped in front of the stage and initiated the opening speech. When the Chancellor welcomed another speaker, he introduced him as a young businessman from New York City.He introduced himself as Zachary Waltz, CEO of Bandwidth Ventures. A prestigious IT and engineering company in Edinburgh. A spark in my head reminded me that he was the cousin Katherine told me about and the

GABRIEL I woke up in an unfamiliar bed with a pounding head, and according to my hazy memory, I had sex with a redhead whose legs curled in my stomach. The last time I found myself in a stranger’s bed, I saw my face plastered across the front page of a tabloid with the most outrageous title. Stark Apparel Inc. CEO, Gabriel Stark, Spotted in A Hotel with A Senator’s Daughter Having a Scandalous Affair! Clearly, the media only targeted me because of my reputation in the corporate world. The woman in the tabloid wasn’t even a senator’s daughter. She was the mayor’s daughter. That’s why I didn’t believe in the news. They just wanted to sell papers. The past few years have been chaotic enough. I was a businessman—not a fucking Hollywood actor. I moved her leg aside, creeped out of bed, and tried not to make a sound. I swiftly dressed, picked a sheet of tissue paper from the nightstand, and a pen from my suit jacket, and then wrote on it. Thank you for letting me devour your pussy last