SuzyI had to make a lot of effort to calm myself and my daughter because she didn't want to listen to me and kept crying without stopping. Frustrated, I held her in my arms and sat in an armchair to breastfeed her, which resulted in her stopping crying. I couldn't stop thinking about the conversati
LauraThe cell phone call was what woke me up that night. I reached out and picked up my cell phone reluctantly, still confused as to who was calling me at that time of night. "Hello? Laura speaking,” I said after answering the call. “Hi, it’s Jason. Terence just called me and said Ava is in labor
Laura“Welcome, Mrs. Thompson, Mr., and Mrs. Pritchard are upstairs; can you go there, please?” Ava's secretary said this as she opened the door for me and my boyfriend. “Thank you, dear. I'm looking forward to it...” I was saying this as I entered the house and was already heading towards the stai
Laura “Oh, my God, what a cute baby...” I grumbled, my eyes shining with emotion as I looked at the baby enveloped in the blanket in Ava's arms. My friend had just given birth, and then the baby was delivered to her in her arms. The medical team had done an excellent job, and my friend had given bi
Laura "What are you doing? My boyfriend is downstairs... Stop it,” I asked him with my heart pounding as he took me with him to the terrace of the Pritchard house, but he didn't stop and took me upstairs and closed the front door to make sure we didn't go caught, or disturbed. “Terence is distrac
Terence “Ladies and gentlemen, I just became a fucking dad!” I spoke loudly and clearly as soon as I went downstairs to my house, a giant smile adorning my face, showing the bigness of my happiness. “Woah! That's right, Terry, congratulations; you deserve it," Jason said, coming to me limping and
Terence “Where’s Jason? I didn't see him leaving,” Nicole asked, becoming suspicious. It had been a few minutes since Jason had managed to go meet Laura, and I was here in the living room talking to Gideon and the doctor, distracting them. Now I shrugged at the question she asked. “The last time
Terence The next morning, I was in the room with Ava and our daughter Abby, talking and marveling at the newborn. “Can I hold him in my arms? I promise I won’t drop him,” I asked, my eyes shining as I looked at the little angel in the crib. Ava and Abby laughed at me for my speech. “You have to
Caleb, Abby, Madison, Nadia—they all spun through my head like a broken carousel. I wanted to tell my parents everything, collapse and ask for help, but the thought of seeing disappointment in their eyes—or worse, them trying to intervene at Oxwell to “save” me—made me swallow the words. I had to fi
Annie POV It was the weekend, and I was at home, trying to take deep breaths and pretend everything was okay. The Oxwell campus was a few hours away, giving me temporary relief from the chaos my life had become. Here, with my parents and the twins, I could at least try to be the old Annie—the exc
Max POV Walking beside someone who’d once meant so much to me felt strange. I couldn’t stop thinking that our breakup had been a waste, couldn’t stop remembering how happy I’d been with this guy, only to ruin it all because of my ego, because of a toxic fixation I had on Albert. Conrad Adams walke
Max POV was stunned when Albert told me that, my mouth even went dry because I wasn’t expecting to hear it. Conrad Adams was back. He was my boyfriend in my early twenties. I met him through Albert, who was close friends with him during the dark days of his family’s company. Conrad was a good guy
Max POV I was driving through the city with the radio on low, just a background murmur to keep the silence from swallowing me whole, when my phone buzzed on the dashboard. Zoey. Of course it was her. The girl had already wormed her way into my house like a high-heeled parasite, and now, apparently,
Annie POV After the moment at the mall, I returned to the dorm with a tight chest, carrying the bags with the blue dress Summer had insisted I buy. The plan was to distract myself, but Madison’s words—“racist,” “canceled piece of trash”—spun in my head like a broken record, mingling with Nadia’s re
When I met her last week at a council meeting, I could tell she’d be a challenge—confident, charismatic, the type who knew how to play the game. “Ugh, Madison Goodwin is here too. What a rotten day,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes. Of course Abby would get close to Madison—she was her adopted cousin.
Annie POV I was still trying to process everything that had happened at the square. Caleb’s words—“I hope you suffer”—mixed with Nadia’s ultimatum about my revoked candidacy had left me in pieces. My dream of leading the student council, something I saw as the first step toward following in my mom’
Annie POV I was still sitting on the bench in the square, the echo of Caleb’s words reverberating in my head like thunder that wouldn’t fade. "I hope you suffer." He had shoved the bouquet of pink flowers against my chest and stormed off, leaving me with a mix of shock, anger, and something that