Brianna can sure talk a lot, and I nod and murmur where I think it's appropriate without listening to a word. Instead, my eyes are on the students who are on campus, soaking up the summer sun before fall sets in. My eyes widen when she stops at the football stadium. I've seen it on social media and on TV. but it doesn't do it justice. When I was little, my dad used to take me to football games, but that ended before I could get attached to the idea. High school stadiums have nothing on this. "We're meeting here?" My heart rate skyrockets. Why am I feeling nervous all of a sudden? Isn't this what I wanted? "Yeah!" Brianna grins. "It's tradition to have tryouts for the A-squad on the football field. That's what you're trying out for, to cheer for those guys all over the country. But don't be too nervous. Freshmen hardly ever make it." This girl doesn't know me. I live for challenges where people think I wouldn't be able to do things. One look at me, and everyone thi
JULIET Strong arms catch me before I meet the fate of the football field, and I hear snickers all around me. "Isn't she like the best?" I hear someone's attempt at a whisper. "That was a rookie mistake." "You okay?" Scott asks me, concern written all over his face. I wipe away the hair from my face that somehow escaped the prison of my ponytail. "Yeah, good catch." He grins playfully. "Told ya." My heart is pounding in my ears as I turn my back on Scott again and spot the guys now standing off to the side with their eyes on us. It's undoubtedly Alonso Moretti. Tall, dark hair that is wet and plastered to his forehead. He's dressed in shorts and a T-shirt that stretches over his muscled chest and arms, leaving no doubt that he's seriously hot. And the whispering idiots are giggling now, most likely ogling him and the rest of the guys who are undoubtedly on the football team. Scott counts with a tap on my waist, and this time, I make sure I do the stunt per
ALONSO POV I glance down at my brother's choice of clothing and shake my head. "You do know it's still summer, right?" I only receive his customary bored expression in return, and I chuckle in response. "Remind me why we are going out for breakfast when we have a fucking chef waiting to tend to our every need?" Arc raises a dark eyebrow at me as he buckles himself in my truck. I shrug. "Because I feel like going out." "Didn't you have a brutal practice just this morning?" He runs his hand through his slightly longer hair. You know what the problem is with being part of triplets? The fuckers can see straight through your bullshit. My brothers know my schedule as if it's their own. I also pride myself on extreme discipline and routine, so whenever I do something out of the ordinary, they know immediately. I usually don't hide anything from my brothers, but I can't tell them of my new little interest. Because usually things don't turn out all too well when I have
JULIET POV My heart is literally galloping out of my chest at being in close proximity to not just one but two Morettis! I'm trying really hard to keep my outward appearance as cool as a cucumber, but inside, I'm keeling over with both excitement and fear. What if they find out who I am? My mother changed her identity before she met my father, but if people like the Morettis decide to dig into your past, I'm sure they'll find out the truth. They certainly have the means to do so. Alonso Moretti had an aura even when he was standing far away from me. And right now, he has his hand in mine with a predatory look in his eyes. Danger emanates out of his every pore, and if I knew what was good for me, I would stay far away from him. I smile politely and extract my hand from his. "Nice to meet you." I can't quite get a read on Alonso because he's wearing sunglasses, but Arcangelo's head is slightly angled to the side, and he's unapologetically looking me up and down.
ARCANGELO POV I knock on my brother's study's door. One thing he hates is people barging into his personal space unannounced, and sometimes being triplets can be overwhelming. You're always up in each other's business and space and fucking head. Sometimes, my brothers know what I want before I've even figured it out. It's both a blessing and a curse. And also the exact reason why I'm knocking on Alessi's door right now, when his head is probably stuck in a medical journal. "Come in!" He barks, and true enough, his big body is slumped over his desk with a book open in front of him. For some reason, all three of us always want to be the best in what we do. My father always said we should do what we wanted, but then my mother would always interject and tell us there's no need to be mediocre while doing it. Or maybe it's just in our nature to be highly competitive and strive for success. The school year hasn't even started yet, but my brother is already getting a head sta
ALESSI POV I'm sitting in my car outside the football stadium, looking at a damn girl in a cheerleading photo on my phone. Juliet Monroe. Who the hell names their daughter Juliet anyway? There's a lot of cheerleading things I found about her online, like there are pages dedicated to her, but none that she runs herself. What eighteen year old girl doesn't have social media? That was literally the weirdest thing to me. I did do some digging, though. Her mother died when she was a kid by apparently drinking too many sleeping pills and then drowning in the bath. The police report claims it was an accident, but it sounds like suicide to me. Her father is a construction manager, and he never remarried. Miss Monroe isn't just some blonde bimbo cheerleader like I initially thought. Oh no, Miss Monroe was valedictorian of her high school class and enrolled in my department. A smart blonde bimbo. So now I'm in my car, waiting to see a glimpse of her like I
JULIET POV Everyone around me is restless in anticipation of who made the A-squad. Well, everyone except me. Not to blow my own horn, but I've been killing it at tryouts this past week, so if I don't make the cut, it would be surprising. The rest of my new teammates are even starting to act nicer towards me. I'm not here to make friends, but it would also be nice not to be in an antagonizing environment for the next four years at least. Scott has been really cute, offering to drive me into town to get everything I need for my dorm room. I also see the way he looks at me, and usually, I would have squashed it before he got any wrong ideas, but I needed him. I even feel slightly bad about it. You can tell he's nice and sincere, and he will make any girl really lucky if he was their boyfriend. If I were a normal girl, I would've flirted with him for sure. "Are you nervous?" He asks me where he's leisurely stretched out on the turf with his hands tucked under his head.
ALESSI POV There's an energy in the house that is palpable. Alonso has asked me twice if I think his outfit is okay. Alonso never asks me for fashion advice. He says my style is too uptight, and Arc looks too emo. Arc has been playing soulful melodies for almost two hours on the baby grand piano in the living room. He only stops to jot down notes. That means she's coming to the party. And I don't know how I feel about that. Our start of term parties have become legendary on campus. Only the who's who of campus get invited. That means the whole football team and the hot chicks who follow them, some of Arc's music friends, and a few people who I tolerate from my pre-med class. I don't really mingle with the students from my class. If I have my brothers, I don't need anyone else. The front doorbell rings, and I assume it's some dudes from the football team. Those guys love to party, and I let them indulge at our place for at least one party a term. "Ge
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