ALESSI POV Arc meets my eyes over the rim of his coffee cup at Alonso's singing. Needless to say, Arc is the only musician out of the three of us, and Alonso never sings. "You're very jolly today." I comment drily. "Anything we should know? " "I have a girlfriend." He throws the bombshell out in-between a whistle. I don't miss how Arc stiffens, the same way I didn't miss how his eyes were on Juliet the whole time at his gig. Juliet, who is now supposedly Alonso's girlfriend. I still can't lay my finger on what the hell it is about the girl that is twisting my brothers up. Yes, she is absolutely gorgeous, but we've been surrounded by gorgeous women all our lives. My aunt and uncle own one of the biggest fashion companies in the country, we've been seeing models since I can remember, but something about Juliet is fucking different. Something I can't quite put my finger on. And even days later, I'm still thinking of the flash of her bare pussy in the club. Why t
JULIET POV Mai has become a welcome reprieve from my vengeful and confusing thoughts. She's experiencing campus like a freshman is supposed to, full of hope and excitement. Her mood is definitely rubbing off on me, and I tag along in a quest to explore all the little shops and find the best coffee in town. She's becoming like one of the things I'm trying to run away from. A friend. I've been missing Alyssa for so long now, even if she was in the same school as me, that I never dared to feel like I actually belong somewhere again. But Mai is innocent and looks at the world through rose colored glasses. It's both refreshing and depressing. "You know, you should totally try out for Miss U.S.A." My new friend and roommate tells me as we're both lying on our beds in the tiny dorm room. "Why the hell would I wanna do that?" I swipe through the posts on the fake social media profile I created. I have to see if there's nothing new on the triplets. Apart from a few t
ALONSO POV Sweat drips from my brow and into my eyes as I run on the side of the road. It's advised to rest on a Sunday, but I jog every morning. I'm in the best shape of my life, and that's how it's going to stay. And I got a call from my uncle Kevin. The NFL wants to know if I will become eligible for the draft after the upcoming season. The answer is still a resounding no, even though he says I will be a first pick. Would I like to play on that level? That's the goal. But I promised my mother I would graduate, even though my father disagrees with her. He doesn't believe you need a college degree to be successful in life, but I respect her wishes. Also, if I go into the draft, I only have one season left with a certain blue-eyed angel whose image I've masturbated to more times than I can count the last week. This is the longest I've ever gone without sex. I usually pick up girls over the weekend at clubs or parties, bring them to the fuck den as Alessi likes to
JULIET POV Three pairs of hands are roaming over my body. They're everywhere. Fingers tangle in my hair, pulling slightly on the strands, and I moan as another set of fingers pushes the wet crotch of panties aside and plunges two fingers inside of me. I cry out at the harsh intrusion, but a hand clamps over my mouth and muffles the sound. It's dark, so I can't see, but I feel everything. All six hands touching me, plucking on my ripples and savagely fucking my pussy with those two fingers. I can hear my dress being torn off my body and my ass cheeks being parted, fingers trying to dig into my forbidden hole. I thrash, trying to get the hands off me, but then a hand grabs my throat, and I go completely still. I stop fighting, but the hand continues to squeeze until I can no longer breathe. And I just give up. Giving up is so much better than this. "Juliet!" The hands are shaking me. I want to disappear in a whirl of smoke, I don't want to be woken up. "J
ALESSI POV Juliet Fucking Monroe is a cancer. She's a tumor that I need to operate on and get rid of. It's been three days since I cornered her in that lecture hall, and I can still feel her damn pulse against my hand. It was never my intention to physically touch her. All I wanted was to have a conversation, maybe warn her off my brothers, but what good will it do if even I can't control myself when it comes to her. And she looked so scared when I wrapped my hand around her throat. Her full, pillowy lips let out a shocked gasp that I wish I could hear every single day, and those big blue eyes that Arc wrote a song about widened in horror. What will she look like if I hike up those little summer dresses she likes to wear and tear her panties off? Will her mouth open in shock? Will her eyes widen if I stuff her pussy full of my dick and cum inside her? And that's how I know she's a fucking cancer. Cancer is a pest that is sometimes very hard to get rid of. And J
ARCANGELO POV Two identical faces turn to mine in unison, but I keep my focus on the screen and on my parents' shocked faces. But I'm doing exactly what my mother said. No matter where, no matter what. If I stay here, I will break that promise because for some reason I can't explain, I can't stay away from Juliet. I have never been as enamored by a girl as I am with her. And it's going to cause a rift between my brothers and I that may never get fixed. It's already caused a thin crack in the solid foundation of our brotherhood. I can't even look my brother in the eye. I am a liar. I betrayed him in the worst way possible. "Why?" My mother asks tentatively. She knows that something is up with us. She always does. Usually, she lets us sort things out between us ourselves. I shrug. "Record companies keep on calling, I don't see why I should stay here if I get all these offers." "Well, the NFL is calling me, but I made a promise." Alonso's eyes are more green
JULIET POV University is no joke. The workload is ten times more than school, and nobody cares about you. They don't care that you're on the damn A-squad of the cheerleading team, so by Friday after my classes, I'm exhausted. "Hey Juliet!" The girl at the front desk smiles brightly at me when I enter the dorms. "A package arrived for you today." I sign for the box, wondering who would be sending me something. If I had given them the chance, Alyssa and her family would surely have sent me care packages by now. I ignore the lump that thought brings out and carry the box to my room. I cut the tape from the box and stand still before opening it. What if my father contacted the university and they told him where to reach me? I'm eighteen and legally an adult, but I'm sure a parent will have access to that information. My hands are slightly shaking when I retrieve a smaller box, and I halt at the familiar pink and black striped package. I slowly undo the black ribbon an
ALONSO POV I'm mad as fuck at Arc. The asshole really upped and left Friday night without telling me or Alessi. He's never done this before. We always know what the others' plans are. Always. And he's being a pussy about it too. I want him to man up and just tell us why he's even considering dropping out of school when that was never an option for any of us. The deal was we go to the school that I chose for football. We stay in school because it's important to our mother and to Alessi. Then I try to get drafted in the city or as close to the city as possible, so Arc can pursue his music career. Does he like Juliet that much that he's willing to just let everything we've planned for years go down the drain? Or is it even about Juliet? I wouldn't fucking know, because he's shutting us out and that's just not how we roll. I'm going over the menu for my date with Yoon when Alessi comes downstairs with his duffel in his hand. He was the one who offered to leave the hous
ALONSO POV "The NFL has decided to suspend you until after a thorough investigation has been done regarding the pictures." I faintly hear Uncle Kevin's voice over the white noise ringing in my ears, and I take another swig of my father's expensive cognac that I swiped from his alcohol display. I gather he has enough money to replace it. The bottle is abruptly grabbed from my hand. "I'm not going to stand by and watch you kill yourself." My mother takes her own swig from the bottle and then slams it down on the table. "For fuck's sake, Alonso, this is not the end of the world." I shrug nonchalantly. "Might as well be." There's a hole where my heart used to be. My career is literally being flushed down the drain. All the hours I spent in the gym, all the plays I studied, the millions of game tapes I've watched. I've always loved to party, but I always only had two light beers. I could've been fucking it up, but I was so focused on that one dream. Then Juliet came al
AMELIA My stomach clenches in agony, and I screw my eyes shut, not wanting the light streaming from the open curtains to penetrate my soul. If it wasn't for Miss Daisy, those damn curtains would've never been open in the first place. I don't need light. The darkness was just perfect for me. I'm officially a prisoner in my own house. I'm even wondering if it is my house. Did I ever belong here in the first place? I might be an Astor by DNA, but I didn't grow up with them. As much as I love them, and as much as it was none of our fault what happened, the truth remains that when I was molded into a person, it wasn't under their hands. Yet I felt like I belonged when I met them, but I feel even more at home when Alonso holds me down and fucks me ruthlessly. Or when he transforms into a huge teddy bear afterward and snuggles me. Do I believe that Alonso did that to that girl? Yes. I also know that she was probably begging for it, too. I was jealous at first when I
ALESSI POV I failed. I failed to protect my brother. Now, my family is trying to do damage control that may not succeed. Alonso is a fucking mess. Yesterday morning, images were shared on every social media network of some idiot influencer who had bruises and bite marks all over her body after spending the night with Alonso. The bigger problem is that the influencer is now nowhere to be found to tell the damn media that whatever happened between them was consensual, even though the images may look alarming. Apparently, she sent the photos to a friend to brag about her night with the infamous Alonso Moretti, and now it has blown up in his face. If you look at the photos alone, it does look like the girl was attacked. It's classic Alonso behavior, though, and the same reason I diligently checked out everyone he slept with in college. I clearly can't be everywhere at once anymore, and now we have a catastrophic problem. Brands are threatening to end their contracts w
ALONSO POV I felt on top of the world right after the win. I showed the assholes who said I was just a rich kid who was overhyped. I had the girl I always wanted waiting for me, and they showed how she and my mom hugged on the jumbotron. For a second life was everything I ever wanted. Then, like an ice-cold bath, reality came knocking on my door when Uncle Kev reminded me that we still had the press conference afterward and that things might get sticky there. Now I'm sitting next to Uncle Kevin waiting for the vultures to spew me with their questions, my leg bouncing nervously. Uncle Kevin's hand reaches underneath the table to squeeze my shaking leg, and I still. The first question is aimed at him. It's entirely professional. How he feels about the future of the team. How he developed the team so that we played so well. My eyes rove over the sea of reporters. Which one of them will bring up the alleged sexual assault? It could be any of them. Was my father able to s
AMEILIA POV I'm nervous when Alonso takes me up to his family's box. This will be the first time I will face them after everything went down, and they undoubtedly know what I tried to do. Even though the triplets don't hold it against me, I still don't understand how they don't, I don't know how their parents will treat me. They have every right to treat me as the piece of shit I am. Maybe everything I'm experiencing right now with my real parents is my punishment for trying to break a family apart. I'm so worlds away from that girl, I still can't believe I carried that vengeance in my heart. I was lying awake most of the night, my head tucked in the crook of Alonso's neck with his breathing softly rustling my hair, and all I could think of was how I did him wrong. I had sex with his brothers, the same brothers whom he shared a womb with, and who means the world to him. And even years later, when I saw them again, I still had this pull towards them. I don't know why it feel
SUMMER POV My heart hammers in my chest as I look up into the gorgeous eyes of Alessi Moretti. Is that disappointment that flashes in its depths at my words? Alessi Moretti was everything I never knew I wanted. He was like a knight in shining armor when he first showed interest in me. I've received plenty of interest from men at the hospital ever since I started working there over two years ago, but I never took the bait. You see, I've always been looked at as the pretty girl. The one every boy in school wants to have sex with, but not commit to. Once, I let myself be that girl, and I got discarded and forgotten about. I vowed that no man would ever make me feel like I'm disposable again. Yet, I fell for Alessi's beautiful exterior and gallant gestures. I should have known he was just like all the other assholes who were just out to use me and discard me. I've never felt so dirty after he told me that he wanted his keys to his apartment back. Keys I never even asked
ALESSI POV I'm feeling jittery, and nervous as fuck. Usually, I would tell my brothers as soon as something as big as an ex-situationship being pregnant happens, but now is not the time. I'll tell them after the game. My mother narrows her eyes at me like a hawk. "Is everything okay?" You can't hide shit from her. "Everything is good." I lie. Everything is shit. I can't believe I'm going through the same shit again! And unless Summer was really sneaky and fucking someone behind my back in the hospital, there is a big chance that child might be mine. I ran away like a fucking coward after I looked into her chart. Memories of my mother placing Bailey's child into my arms and the panic attack that I almost had when I looked into his face came running back to me, and I couldn't breathe. I had to get out of there. I've been avoiding her at work, and I think she's been avoiding me too, but I know that I'm going to have to address the issue as soon as possibl
LOLA POV My eyes go to Arcangelo for probably the hundredth time as I go over the contract with not one but three lawyers present. This can't be happening. Not to me, at least. Good things like this don't happen to people from my part of the woods. People always ask me why I don't just sign with a label and get Cassy out of the dump we stay in, but I wasn't about to sell my damn soul for a record contract. This contract is different, though. It allows me to have control over the kind of music I want to make and the image I want to portray to the world. It's unheard of, is what it is. My father was a musician, one of the best. The music he wrote got stolen, and he never saw a dime of the money it made. So you can call me shaded. Because of this industry, my father became a drug addicted alcoholic who ruined everything in his path. Including me. I had to learn from a very young age that I had to take care of myself because the adults in my life wer
ARCANGELO POV I look in the rearview mirror as I drive from the studio to the hotel I booked for Lola and her "kid," who didn't end up really being her own child, but her little sister. Cassy is a five-year-old hellion who has been entertaining me for the last two days ever since I put them on the company's private jet and brought them to New York. The last two days have been a whirlwind, and I don't know if I've ever laughed so much as I did in these two days. We've been in the studio ever since we arrived on Friday, and after she sang Mai's Song in that bar, I did the unimaginable and let her record it and made it into a duet. My music has always been personal. Every word of my lyrics, every note that I pen down comes from my soul, and sure, I've written songs for other artists before, but never one as deeply personal as Mai's Song. The way Lola sang that song like I had written it for her made me feel compelled to let her sing on it. I haven't asked her what happe