"All's well that ends well to end up with you"
Oscar Piastri had been chasing after the one girl who never seemed to stop running. Having been best friends with her since they were ten, Oscar was realising that he had more than friend feelings for a...
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FEBRUARY 2024 — COBHAM, ENGLAND
Watt house was a gloomy place. It seemed void of Life to Leilani as she dragged her suitcase through it and up the stairs.
The walls of her old room stood as pale and uninviting as Leilani remembered. The faded cream wallpaper, peeling slightly at the edges, had been there since she was a child. Her narrow bed, neatly made, looked untouched, its stiff floral duvet pressed flat and lifeless. She let her fingers trail over the desk she had barely used, its surface scuffed from long-forgotten study sessions.
The room felt more like a guest space than a place she'd once called hers. She hadn't really lived here—not properly. Most of her youth had been spent at private school, far away from this sterile, unchanging corner of her grandparents' house.
Leilani sighed and leaned against the windowsill. The garden below was immaculate, as always, with David's precious roses standing stiff and orderly. Their perfection felt suffocating, just like the man who pruned them.
The distant hum of voices and clinking glasses drew her attention back to the party below. She exhaled heavily, adjusted her dress, and made her way downstairs. It was the one place she didn't want to be but the place she was forced to be.
The moment she stepped into the living room, David's piercing glare found her. His eyes were cold, calculating, as though sizing her up for some invisible flaw. He approached, his polished shoes clicking on the wooden floor.
"Don't embarrass us," said David, his voice low but sharp. "Keep your comments to yourself."
Leilani forced a tight smile.
"Of course," She replied, her tone dripping with false sweetness.
She stepped around him before he could say more and immersed herself in the crowd of guests. The family had started to arrive, filling the house with their chatter and laughter. Leilani plastered a polite smile on her face as she moved through the crowd, nodding here and there, exchanging stiff pleasantries.
She dodged questions and pretended not to hear them because she knew she'd say something she'd regret. The room felt stifling, and the act of pretending drained her with every passing second. Then, one of her mother's cousins' grabbed her by the wrist.
