*Kane's POV*
“Oh by the way, Kane, your mother and I-”
“Heather is not my mother, and she never will be,” I say coldy.
“Watch your tongue boy,” He snaps and the look in his eyes has me freezing in place. His punishments are...brutal. And they’ve been getting progressively worse since my mother’s death when I was 12. And I can’t do a damn thing about it because he literally has my entire life in his hands.
“Like I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, we will be moving to New York next month and I’ve arranged your transfer to Harvard to finish up the school year.”
“Fine,” I bite out. It’s not like it matters where I finish school. And it’s not like I’ll be leaving anybody behind. I’m not in the business of making personal connections. My father made damn sure of that.
“Was that attitude I just heard?”
“No,” I reply.
“No, what?” I see the muscle in his jaw tic. The one that tells me when I’m verging on the point of no return. I just need to play nice until I can figure out a way to untangle the giant disaster that is my life.
“No, sir.”
“Alright so, I’ve got a very promising investor lined up, and his son happens to be the president of a fraternity at Harvard so I’ve arranged for you to join.”
“Yes, sir,” I say, biting back the urge to tell him to shove his fraternity up his ass. This has got to be one of his mind games. When I see the look on his face I’m sure it is. He knew that would piss me off. A smug smirk forms across his face and he says, “Good, now get the fuck out of my face and go pack.”
I say nothing and head up to my room.
A few weeks later, Heather is throwing a party at our house to bid our London clients farewell as we’re headed to America tomorrow. She is so fucking shallow, it’s unbelievable. She likes to put on this facade that we’re some happy perfect little family when it’s so obvious she’s only here for my father’s money. He’s just got more money than her previous rich husband. I hide up in my room for most of it, and fall asleep in my bed for the last time.
When we arrive in New York City, we get a taxi to our new mansion in the upper east side of Manhattan. I’m sure Heather will fit right in here. Everyone seems to be just as fake as she is. We spend some time getting settled in and my father buys us all new cars to replace the ones we had to leave in London. I know he doesn’t actually care and that they’re more of a bribe than anything but I’m not gonna say no to a Porsche.
It’s a week before school is supposed to start, but the frat apparently wants to convene early so I make the 3.5 hour drive to Harvard and locate the frat house.
When I walk in, a bunch of guys wearing muscle shirts all turn to look at me.
“Hello, I’m looking for Cole.”
“Oh shit! You’re the british dude! Your Dad is Harper Owen, right?”
“Yes,” I reply curtly.
One of the guys comes forward and says, “Hey man, I’m Cole. My dad and your dad are super tight apparently. Welcome to Alpha Psi.” I shake his hand and just nod.
Over the next week, I realize that I have absolutely nothing in common with any of these spoiled, preppy, rich kids. Fuck this year is going to suck. On Sunday night apparently all the freshmen will be arriving on campus and so we will be throwing a party so that we can scope out potential pledges and all the new girls. Good, I could use a good fuck.
By around 9pm, people have already begun to show up and I’ve decided to pour myself a drink and go stand on the balcony and watch the girls as they come in. This whole thing is really not my scene and I’m not very impressed by the options thus far if I’m honest.
Everytime I go down to get a drink I get swarmed by bubbly girls wearing a ton of makeup and way too little clothing and get asked to join some kind of game or another. I just glare at them and push them out of my way.
About an hour later, I’m a couple of drinks in, when I see two girls walk through the door. A tall blonde and a shorter brunette. The blonde is hot but it’s the brunette I find myself interested in. She looks kind of familiar but I can’t quite place her.
As I watch her, images pop into my head. No. That can’t be her. It’s been almost a year but there’s no way she’s changed this much in that time. She would never wear something like that in a million years.
I can’t help my curiosity though and I go down the stairs and follow her into the kitchen to get a closer look. Her back is to me as her friend pours drinks and she watches.
“Violet?” I ask tentatively.
Her head snaps up and she turns around and looks at me with confusion in her eyes.
“Kane?”
It is her. NO. She can’t be here. He must have known she would be here. This is one of his sick fucking games. It’s one of his favourites. One he hasn’t been able to play in a very long time.
*Violet's POV*As I look into his dark eyes, I can’t help the slew of emotions that over power me. Anger, hatred and fear are the most prominent ones. He looks exactly the same as he did the last time I saw him. Tall, fit, covered in tattoos, black hair short on the sides and pushed back on top and giving me a cold, calculating look with a hint of unpredictability that tells me he could snap at any second. The same one that was always on his father’s face.“What are you doing here?”“I go here. What are you doing here?” He spits back.“I go here. I thought you were at Oxford?”“I was. I had to transfer here for my last year because my father forced me to follow them to New York a couple months ago.”I’m so shocked I don’t even know what to reply to this. How did I not know they were here? Also I think this is the longest we’ve ever spoken without him insulting me.
*Kane's POV*God dammit! I slam the door to my room and begin pacing, remembering the first time I ever met her. It was at the wedding 5 years ago. She was so small and fragile, wearing a long sleeved dress that was a couple sizes too big for her. I didn’t know who she was at first, but when my father introduced us, I felt fear. Raw unadulterated fear. Not for me. But for her. There’s no way this girl could survive my father. I remember having a very strong and sudden urge to protect her.I made a big mistake, though. I didn’t hide it fast enough. He saw. He saw and I caught the glint in his eye that told me he was going to use her to punish me, just like he used to use my mother. I had to try to cover it up.When I found out she wasn’t going to be living with us, just visiting occasionally, I was relieved. But still, he needed to think I didn’t care and I needed her to hate me so she would stay away. So, every time she came to visi
*Violet's POV*When my alarm goes off the next morning, I look over and see Stella passed out on top of the covers wearing last night’s clothes. I didn’t even hear her come in last night. I stretch and get up and then go over to her bed.I put my hand on her shoulder and shake her a bit and say, “Stella, it’s time to wake up.”She groans and says, “I don’t wanna,” into the pillow.“If you get up now we’ll have time to go to Starbucks on our way,” I bribe. I’m not even sure if she likes coffee but I am in desperate need of one so hopefully she is too.Her head perks up at this and she says, “Need caffeine,” as she pushes herself up into a seated position.“When did you come back last night?” I ask her.“I have literally no clue,” She replies as she makes her way to the mirror. She looks in it and goes, “Dear God, I look lik
*Kane's POV*As I’m walking through campus, I don’t know why, but something compels me to look at the building to my left. When I do, I see a window with Violet and her friend from last night sitting on the other side of it. I don’t know why, but my feet are moving towards her on their own accord.I walk up to their table and Violet looks up at me, shock written all over her face.“Hello,” I say.“Hi,” She replies quietly. She’s clearly still confused. And, to be honest, so am I.“How did you find the rest of the party?” I ask casually, trying to glean any information on if she was as miserable as I was after our little exchange last night.The blond starts, “Oh, she-”“Enjoyed it. She enjoyed it,” Violet cuts her off and gives her a pointed look. Interesting. I wonder what that’s about. I search her eyes for answers but find nothing.&ldq
*Violet's POV*After the strange encounter with Kane, we head back to the dorm and Stella tells me she’s going to have a nap so I decide I should probably take this chance to make some phone calls. I bring my laptop outside and sit underneath a shady tree and put my headphones in. I facetime Rebecca first.She answers right away and I can see that she’s sitting in her room. Her red hair is up in a bun and she’s got her glasses on.“Hey Vi, what’s up?”“You will never believe who is here.”“Who?”“Kane.”Her mouth drops open. “Kane as in your step-brother Kane?”“The one and only,” I reply with a fake smile.“Why? How did you even find out about this?”I explain the whole story at the frat party and she takes a few seconds to process this.“I can’t believe she didn’t tell you. Also I
*Kane's POV*Tuesday morning, I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing. The caller ID says it’s my father. Of course it is. I know it will only make things worse if I don’t answer so I click the little green button.“Hello,” I say, not trying to conceal the annoyance in my voice.“Hello son. How have you enjoyed your first couple days?” I calculate whether or not I should mention that I saw Violet. It is a small campus so it is likely we would have run into each other. But it is also probable we didn’t. Has she spoken to her mother? Maybe he already knows. I have no way of knowing so I decide to keep it vague.“Fine,” I say, continuing to give away no information with my tone.“Well, we’re going to invite your sister to come stay with us this weekend.” My stomach drops. “We figure since you go to the same school, you could carpool.”I’m in so much sho
*Violet's POV*No no no no. What did I just do? That was wrong on so many levels. He’s mystep-brotherand I have a boyfriend. Oh god, I just cheated on Jace. I’m such a horrible person. But why did it feel so good? Kissing Jace is nice, sure, but that? That was a whole other level. My body has never reacted that way before. It was like everywhere he was touching was on fire. No! Stop it! I can’t be thinking this way! I have a boyfriend who I love and who loves me. I will not screw that up!I don’t even know why he kissed me. It makes no sense. I have so many questions that I’ll probably never get the answers to. I do know two things for sure though. One: I cannot tell anybody about this. And two: it can never happen again.When I step into the room, Stella is on her laptop and she doesn’t look up when she asks, “So, how did it go?”I’m thankful she’s not looking at me because
*Kane's POV*I spend pretty much the whole day trying to distract myself from Violet, but I just can’t. The only thing that’s getting me through is the thought of the fights tonight. The day seems to pass in slow motion as I wait. By 9pm, I cannot wait any longer and I walk out the front door towards the car I have stashed in an alley.The 10 minute walk passes quickly and I hop in my car and head to the address on the piece of paper. When I arrive I see that I am at a strip joint not too far from Rex’s gym and it’s sitting on an unnecessarily large concrete pad. The neon sign out front is lit up and I suspect the strip club part is already open. I drive past it and park a couple streets over. It’s barely 9:30. I set my phone down and head in. Might as well enjoy some tits while I wait.I flip up my hood for the walk; the probability that I’ll run into somebody I know is slim, but one can never be too safe. When I open the doo