kara_fd
- Reads 7,196
- Votes 88
- Parts 13
They call themselves her protectors. I call them my prey.
Elara is the invisible girl-the wallflower the campus kings, Julian, Silas, and Ezra, keep under their thumb. To the world, they are her guardians, shielding her from a world that would "break" her. To Elara, they are the three men she's loved since she was sixteen, and the only way to get them to see her as a woman is to play the one role they can't resist: The Victim.
When Elara proposes a game of high-stakes poker called "The Debt," the boys think it's a joke. They think they're going to teach her a lesson in modesty. They don't realize every "fumble," every "blush," and every "lost" hand is a calculated move.
As the debts pile up and the lessons move from the library to the locker room, the lines between protection and obsession blur. But when a hidden notebook reveals Elara's true face-that of a master manipulator who rigged the deck from the start-the "innocent" girl finds herself at the mercy of three men who don't like being played.
The cards are on the table. The masks are off. And in this game, the only way to win is to lose everything.
"They thought they were the ones corrupting the innocent girl. They didn't realize I'd been counting every card, rigging every deck, and losing every bet... just to see which one of them would break first. Turns out, they all did."