CHAPTER ONE
FELIX
Age: 21
I’m at my father’s engagement party when I see Harper for the first time since she broke my heart a year ago.
She’s unaware of my eyes on her, standing across the crowded living room. I thought I’d prepared myself well for this moment but seeing her is more painful than I expected. She’s more beautiful than I remember. She’s happy, smiling at Tyler. That’s the part that hurts the most.
My brother gets all her smiles and to make her laugh. He gets to fall asleep every night with her in his arms. He gets her kisses. Her moans. Her perfect body.
Tyler has access to every precious piece of Harper and doesn’t deserve any of it.
Fuck him and his happiness.
“Champagne?” A passing waiter holds up a tray of flute glasses.
At least the alcohol is flowing at this party. My fatherknows how to throw money around to impress people. Tonight, his penthouse is buzzing with Manhattan A-listers. Journalists and photographers are here to report on the “happy family” he’s building.
I drink a flute of champagne in two gulps then grab another before the waiter leaves. My gaze returns to Harper. She’s laughing with Dad’s fiancée, Amabella, while wrapped in Tyler’s arms.
My breath stops when Harper’s eyes suddenly land on me. Every inch of my body is aching and burning up. Her laughter disappears, replaced by a miserable darkness in her eyes as if she’s never known a day of happiness in her life.
So many emotions live within those beautiful blue eyes. Sorrow. Despair. Anguish. Guilt. But what I see most of all…
It rips me to shreds because she should not be looking at me like she…lovesme.
Fuck.That is the last goddamn thing I need to see from Harper.She’sthe one who broke up with me.Sheinsisted we could no longer be a trio. I was a wreck after losing her and have worked hard to get my life back on track.
Harper tugs Tyler’s arm. He breaks conversation with Amabella, following Harper’s gaze straight to me. The piece of shit instantly leaves his post with Harper, weaving among guests for me, always desperate to have my forgiveness.
I don’t know how I can forgive him for the choices he made while I was trapped at that fucked up reformschool, Westbridge, for five months by my father’s command.
Tyler worked with our dad in lying to Harper, claiming he didn’t know where I was, and let her believe I abandoned her. When Harper got pregnant, Tyler made plans to marry her even though he knew she was my entire world and I was coming back for her. I can’t understand Tyler’s logic, not when he claims the three of us were the most important thing to him. If he just used his fucking head for once instead of following our father’s order to lie, we’d still be together.
I skipped town for a few months after the breakup, rarely sober and unable to face reality. Since returning to the city, I’ve been unable to avoid Tyler due to family events, but I’ve kept my distance, shutting him down every time he tries to apologize.
I’ve received countless phone calls from him, Harper too, which have led me to block their numbers. I’ve given my doorman strict orders to never let them enter my building. Neither of them can take the hint to fuck off out of my life.
My brother and Harper annihilated me. So, while Harper is looking at me like she loves me, and while Tyler is desperate for us to be the close brothers we once were, I can’t let their bullshit back into my life.
Rule one: Never trust Harper and Tyler. This way, they’ll never be able to hurt me again.
Rule two: Under no circumstance, no matter how fucking badly I want it, am I to engage in any kind of sexual intercourse with Harper.
I turn my back on them and disappear among theparty guests. My career is now my sole focus in life. I’m dealing eclipse with Theo and will soon be opening my speakeasy.
Besides, Harper and Tyler’s relationship is messy, wrapped up in secrets, lies, and shame, and I want no part of it. They have issues I can’t even try to understand. I fled town, unable to watch Harper marry my brother and bring a child into this world with him. When I built up the courage to return, I was shocked to find no baby or marriage. No one was even aware of Tyler and Harper’s situation, other than my father.
Even to this day, my two youngest brothers, Dan and Killian, are clueless to everything that happened. No one has told them I used to be with Harper or that I shared her with Tyler. They don’t know I killed a man while fighting him off Harper. They don’t know our father covered up the murder or that he sent me across the country to Westbridge.
I’m confident Dad hasn’t told Amabella any of this. She’s enamored by him and thinks he’s an honorable man. He wouldn’t risk frightening her away by sharing the skeletons in his closet.
To play along with Dad’s cover-up, I fed Killian and Dan a lie about attending boarding school; it’s easier than recounting the truth. They’ve asked me questions, particularly why I can’t stand to be around Tyler when he was once my closest friend. I’ve told them it’s private.
Lucky for me, they’re consumed in their own lives and haven’t pried too hard. Killian’s always off chasing girls. Dan is spending all his time with the newestadditions to the Blackwood family—our soon-to-be stepmom and her daughter, Ally.
I can’t blame him. Amabella is lovely. She’s the mother we’ve never had. Ally is this timid kid who has trauma from her mom’s violent ex. She’s been bullied at school. She didn’t have any friends until meeting Dan. Now I never see the two apart.
