Novel-novel oleh raphael o.cl

Rain hit the cabin windows hard.The sound was everywhere in the living room it was like the storm wanted to get inside.I had trouble breathing.Then I saw the black SUVs driving up the driveway and something inside me just broke.My father found me again.No matter how far I ran or how well I hid he always found me.The headlights outside shone through the darkness and men in suits got out of the cars.They looked professional, cold and in control.I knew some of them not by name. I remembered their faces.I remembered seeing them at my childhood home escorting politicians and looking through people like they were nothing.Now they were here for me.My heart was beating hard it hurt."They found us " I whispered, my voice sounded weak and broken.I hated it.There was another knock at the door deep and demanding.Every muscle in my body tensed up. For a second I was seventeen again trapped in my fathers mansion trying to survive by being small and quiet.Another knock, this time clo

Andrews POV Rain follows us all the way out of Blackwood.Not soft rain.Violent rain.The kind that turns the entire world blurry beyond the windshield and makes you feel like something terrible is chasing you through the dark.Maybe something is.I still can’t stop staring at my father’s text message.I saw you leave with the Shawn boy.Every time I read it, my chest tightens harder.He knows.Not everything.But enough.Enough to be dangerous.Mark doesn’t say much while driving. His hands stay steady on the wheel as the city lights disappear farther behind us, swallowed by mountains and thick forests.I should ask where we’re going.Instead, I sit curled into myself in the passenger seat trying not to shake apart completely.The silence between us feels different now.Not hostile.Not wounded.Just heavy with everything we still haven’t said.The windshield wipers move rhythmically.Back and forth.Back and forth.My brain keeps replaying the gala.Daniel’s voice.My father’s eye

Andrews POV The terrace feels too small for the amount of panic inside my body.Cold wind cuts across my face while Daniel stands in front of me holding my entire life in one hand.His phone screen glows between us.Five minutes.That’s all it would take.Five minutes for my father to see the video.Five minutes for Mark’s career to explode.Five minutes for every ugly thing I buried years ago to crawl back out into the light.I can barely breathe.Daniel watches me carefully.Not angry anymore.Calm.That’s worse.Because calm Daniel is the version that already decided how this ends.“You’re shaking,” he says quietly.I hate that he notices.I hate that my body betrays me around him.I wrap my arms tighter around myself, trying to stop the trembling, but it’s useless.Everything hurts.My chest.My head.My throat from trying not to break down in front of him.Inside the ballroom, muffled music still plays beyond the terrace doors.People are dancing.Laughing.Drinking champagne wh

I knew the moment the car stopped outside the Reyes estate that I was walking into hell.The mansion glowed like something ripped out of a billionaire fantasy.Golden lights spilled across marble stairs. Luxury cars lined the circular driveway endlessly while cameras flashed at every arriving guest. Men in tailored tuxedos laughed too loudly beside women dripping in diamonds worth more than my entire existence.Everything looked beautiful.That was the worst part.People always think monsters live in ugly places.They don’t.Sometimes monsters live beneath crystal chandeliers and smile politely while offering champagne.Daniel steps out of the car first.Then he turns and offers me his hand like we’re actually here willingly.Like I’m not suffocating inside this expensive black suit he picked for me himself.“You clean up well, Calebs,” he says softly.I ignore the hand and climb out alone.The cold night air barely helps.My chest already feels tight.Too tight.The massive estate to

I haven’t slept properly in three days.Not real sleep anyway.Just fragments.Ten minutes here.Twenty there.Then I wake up choking on panic with my heart trying to claw its way out of my chest.Every single time, I hear Daniel’s voice again.Your father is flying in for this event.And suddenly I’m seventeen again.Locked in a marble mansion that never felt like home.Flinching every time footsteps came near my bedroom door.Waiting for anger to explode.Waiting for disappointment.Waiting for pain.Wednesday morning arrives like a punishment.Blackwood University is loud around me—students laughing, doors slamming, coffee machines hissing—but it all sounds distant, muffled underwater noise inside my skull.I can barely feel my hands.I stand in front of my dorm mirror for almost five full minutes trying to button my shirt because my fingers won’t stop trembling.Pathetic.I look pathetic.Dark circles stain the skin beneath my eyes. My blonde hair is messy from running my hands th

Tuesday morning felt unbearable.Andrew sat near the back of the advanced literature seminar with his hood pulled low and his fingers clenched tightly around his pen. Rain tapped softly against the tall classroom windows, turning the gray skies outside into a blur.Nobody spoke much.The rumors after the Board hearing had poisoned the atmosphere of the class.Every whisper felt loaded.Every glance felt suspicious.And at the front of the room stood Mark.Cold.Perfect.Untouchable.Professor Shawn looked devastatingly composed in a charcoal button-up with his sleeves rolled neatly to his forearms. His expression gave nothing away as he arranged papers across the podium.But Andrew noticed the small things.The exhaustion beneath his eyes.The tension in his jaw.The way he avoided looking directly at Andrew for too long.It hurt.God, it still hurt.Andrew looked down quickly before his face betrayed him.“Before we begin today’s lecture,” Mark said calmly, “there will be a change to