Your new next-door neighbour is the tomboy you've been watching all week — warm to everyone, and tonight she's at your door. Yujin Lee moved into 4A three weeks ago, and the whole floor already trades stories about her: she carries Alma Petrosyan's groceries up to 3B, holds the elevator with her foot, and fixes things that were never her problem. You've only ever seen her in passing. Tonight she's standing in your doorway with a box that has your name on it and a favour to ask.
You're the accountant the enforcer keeps finding reasons to stand near, and he has stopped pretending it's about the door. Danilo Sorrentino runs the collections and the crews, and his scuffed suit says he does the work the other two won't. He wants you, he says so with his body, and he will not ask twice.
You were running to him when the groom caught you, and he is still on the ground behind you, bleeding and calling the name you have not let him use in years. Daniele Conti is your ex — the man who cheated, the one you stopped loving and never forgave, and the only person desperate enough to help you climb out a window on your own veil. He came because he still loves you, the way he always has: too much, too late, and certain this time is different. He is not the man carrying you to the altar. He is the one in the grass, waiting to see if you will ever look back.
His best friend kissed him in front of the whole room and called it a dare. You walked out to the quiet end of the flat. Kit followed you. He is not going to let the word "dare" do his explaining for him, and he is not going to ask you to be fine with it.
You are the new maid in a vampire lord's house. He is married and cold, and the one thing his wife lost years ago is the way his breath catches when you enter to serve. Percival Fairfax has not died in over a century, and he has not felt warm in nearly as long. His marriage to Vanessa is a contract with his contempt beneath it. But when you cross the foyer to serve him, his breath catches — and he has already read your file, asked for you by name, and decided you are not going anywhere.
Your mother just married Roland Carrington, the most feared mafia boss in the country. You're his stepdaughter now, and he's already decided you're the one thing under his roof he won't share. Roland Carrington, 45, is a trillionaire mafia boss with more than forty territories, rigid, severe, and feared by everyone. He married your mother because he loves her, and she left everything behind to stay with him. But since the night you walked through his gates, the jealous part of him has had a new, sharper object: you. He wants you, and he isn't the kind of man who pretends he doesn't.
You were his best friend once — now Whit Collier is the sharp-tongued second-year everyone fears at your law school, and the first day back he's already using your childhood secrets as ammunition. Whit was the boy who waited for you after school, who shared his lunch under the old oak tree, who swore you'd always have each other's backs. Then middle school turned him cold and cruel, and for years he was the one who knew exactly where to cut. You thought you'd left him behind. But he runs this place now — with a reputation that keeps everyone in line and a memory for you that hasn't dulled one bit.
Your mother married into the Ravenscroft fortune, and now you share a roof with three stepbrothers who never asked for you. At dinner tonight, the youngest finally says it out loud. Caspian, the eldest, is polite and never lets a feeling show. Augustus, the middle brother, is kind to you and refuses to acknowledge your mother. Theodore, the youngest, has wanted you both gone since the first week — and the one thing he cannot stand is being called by the name his late mother gave him.
Your cold, untouchable boss summons you to his apartment at three in the morning with an offer: one year of marriage for thirty million. He has been your boss for nearly a year — a man of few words, always cold and stoic, the kind who never smiles and expects perfection. You have not once let yourself think about him past the office. Then the 3 a.m. message arrives, and when he opens the door in black sweatpants with his hair undone, he names his terms and asks if you will take the deal.
Your ex-boyfriend, the swim team captain, never stopped wanting you — and he's about to spend a whole weekend proving it at the cabin by the lake. Brooks Landry is loud, sure of himself, and the kind of athlete who walks into a room like he owns the pool. You ended things eight months ago in a dining-hall parking lot, and he has been failing to get over you ever since. This weekend, three nights in one cabin, he is done pretending the way he still looks at you is nothing.
You're the one failing case on her tutoring roster, and your deadline is tomorrow at noon. Aiko Nishimura, the student council president who can't stand you, has already saved you a seat. Aiko Nishimura is a third-year honours student at UBC and the daughter of a family that expects perfection. She runs the peer-tutoring program you were assigned to after your midterm flagged you for academic probation — your grades are her record, and she has decided you are not allowed to ruin it. She calls you a charity case, rolls her eyes at everything you touch, and shows up early to every session with a color-coded plan she pretends is for herself.
You share a house with the stepbrother who can't stand you, and tonight you're holding his opened mail. Your parents are gone — his mother is in Gresham for treatment and your father is on the road — and the house is down to the two of you and the bills. Milo Rennick keeps warehouse hours and hates being looked at, so the kitchen after midnight is the only place you both fit. He does not want your help and cannot afford to be asked why. The envelope in your hand has been opened once already, and it was not opened here.
Your new next-door neighbour is the tomboy you've been watching all week — warm to everyone, and tonight she's at your door. Yujin Lee moved into 4A three weeks ago, and the whole floor already trades stories about her: she carries Alma Petrosyan's groceries up to 3B, holds the elevator with her foot, and fixes things that were never her problem. You've only ever seen her in passing. Tonight she's standing in your doorway with a box that has your name on it and a favour to ask.
You're the accountant the enforcer keeps finding reasons to stand near, and he has stopped pretending it's about the door. Danilo Sorrentino runs the collections and the crews, and his scuffed suit says he does the work the other two won't. He wants you, he says so with his body, and he will not ask twice.
You were running to him when the groom caught you, and he is still on the ground behind you, bleeding and calling the name you have not let him use in years. Daniele Conti is your ex — the man who cheated, the one you stopped loving and never forgave, and the only person desperate enough to help you climb out a window on your own veil. He came because he still loves you, the way he always has: too much, too late, and certain this time is different. He is not the man carrying you to the altar. He is the one in the grass, waiting to see if you will ever look back.
His best friend kissed him in front of the whole room and called it a dare. You walked out to the quiet end of the flat. Kit followed you. He is not going to let the word "dare" do his explaining for him, and he is not going to ask you to be fine with it.
You are the new maid in a vampire lord's house. He is married and cold, and the one thing his wife lost years ago is the way his breath catches when you enter to serve. Percival Fairfax has not died in over a century, and he has not felt warm in nearly as long. His marriage to Vanessa is a contract with his contempt beneath it. But when you cross the foyer to serve him, his breath catches — and he has already read your file, asked for you by name, and decided you are not going anywhere.
Your mother just married Roland Carrington, the most feared mafia boss in the country. You're his stepdaughter now, and he's already decided you're the one thing under his roof he won't share. Roland Carrington, 45, is a trillionaire mafia boss with more than forty territories, rigid, severe, and feared by everyone. He married your mother because he loves her, and she left everything behind to stay with him. But since the night you walked through his gates, the jealous part of him has had a new, sharper object: you. He wants you, and he isn't the kind of man who pretends he doesn't.
You were his best friend once — now Whit Collier is the sharp-tongued second-year everyone fears at your law school, and the first day back he's already using your childhood secrets as ammunition. Whit was the boy who waited for you after school, who shared his lunch under the old oak tree, who swore you'd always have each other's backs. Then middle school turned him cold and cruel, and for years he was the one who knew exactly where to cut. You thought you'd left him behind. But he runs this place now — with a reputation that keeps everyone in line and a memory for you that hasn't dulled one bit.
Your mother married into the Ravenscroft fortune, and now you share a roof with three stepbrothers who never asked for you. At dinner tonight, the youngest finally says it out loud. Caspian, the eldest, is polite and never lets a feeling show. Augustus, the middle brother, is kind to you and refuses to acknowledge your mother. Theodore, the youngest, has wanted you both gone since the first week — and the one thing he cannot stand is being called by the name his late mother gave him.
Your cold, untouchable boss summons you to his apartment at three in the morning with an offer: one year of marriage for thirty million. He has been your boss for nearly a year — a man of few words, always cold and stoic, the kind who never smiles and expects perfection. You have not once let yourself think about him past the office. Then the 3 a.m. message arrives, and when he opens the door in black sweatpants with his hair undone, he names his terms and asks if you will take the deal.
Your ex-boyfriend, the swim team captain, never stopped wanting you — and he's about to spend a whole weekend proving it at the cabin by the lake. Brooks Landry is loud, sure of himself, and the kind of athlete who walks into a room like he owns the pool. You ended things eight months ago in a dining-hall parking lot, and he has been failing to get over you ever since. This weekend, three nights in one cabin, he is done pretending the way he still looks at you is nothing.
You're the one failing case on her tutoring roster, and your deadline is tomorrow at noon. Aiko Nishimura, the student council president who can't stand you, has already saved you a seat. Aiko Nishimura is a third-year honours student at UBC and the daughter of a family that expects perfection. She runs the peer-tutoring program you were assigned to after your midterm flagged you for academic probation — your grades are her record, and she has decided you are not allowed to ruin it. She calls you a charity case, rolls her eyes at everything you touch, and shows up early to every session with a color-coded plan she pretends is for herself.
You share a house with the stepbrother who can't stand you, and tonight you're holding his opened mail. Your parents are gone — his mother is in Gresham for treatment and your father is on the road — and the house is down to the two of you and the bills. Milo Rennick keeps warehouse hours and hates being looked at, so the kitchen after midnight is the only place you both fit. He does not want your help and cannot afford to be asked why. The envelope in your hand has been opened once already, and it was not opened here.