somewhere only we know || grayson hawthorne x oc

chapter two (izzy)

No.

No. No.

No no no no no no.

This couldn't be happening. Izzy didn't understand, but at the same time, she understood perfectly well. Tobias Hawthorne hated her. What better way to punish her than leave her this wretched house, the one which she had so desperately tried to run from. She had got lucky. Of course her efforts would come to nothing. And now, she was the target of every single Hawthorne or Hawthorne-adjacent person in this room. Well, maybe not Nash, or Xander. They had always seemed rather indifferent towards the Hawthorne inheritance. After all, they weren't the ones raised to receive it one day. And Grayson. While her situation had just become pretty rough, she hurt the most for him. His entire reality had just been pulled from under him. Everything he had ever worked for, ever struggled for, ever aspired for, was all a thing of the past. She couldn't bear to go through with this, not when so many things were riding on it.

"There has to be some mistake." Izzy was surprised to find that all the shouting had abruptly stopped at the sound of her voice and, judging by the looks on everyone's faces, they were too. Still, she resolved to be the voice of reason. "Surely, regardless of whether I own the House or not, I can leave. Then we can go the rest of our lives without seeing each other again." A bit dramatic, she knew, but everything about this situation was dramatic, so you couldn't blame her.

"I-I'm afraid there's a stipulation. A condition." Mr Ortega stuttered with shock.

"What is it?" Grayson demanded with his heir apparent authority, regardless of change in situation.

"Y-You must s-stay here for a y-year."

"And what happens if she doesn't?" asked Nash, his voice traced with worry about what he was going to hear.

"Then you lose it. The money, the Foundation, and the House. Isabel's share of the will. All of it."