Kingsbury a home not a place. After four years Alessia-Juliette Palmer moves back to her home town after vanishing out of the blue. The Palmers hoped for a laid back and relaxed return, but with AJ nothings really that easy. Four years ago AJ left. No looking back; no goodbye. Leaving a world behind with her. Friends. Best friends. Childhood love. Without a goodbye, a shield of hurt. Grace Elizabeth Ramsey; Kingsbury's own sweetheart. Also the six years old situationship AJ left behind. Four years changes a lot; anger and pain. So AJ the sarcastic, sporty, literature genius. And Grace the loveable, far too sweet, also sporty, mathematician. Is four years too late for forgiveness? Or has AJ met the countdown for redemption?

Avery I know I don't feel things the way other people do, it's like I'm empty and hollow on the inside, I mimic people's emotions, to pass off as normal. A family that came and went when I reached the age of 18. I barely remember my father and mother's face, when it's not through a phone screen. I have worked too hard to lose my place, and when I'm moved to London for a more permanent position for my law company. Leaving me in search of a new home designer and interior wise. That's when trouble hits my door. A redhead, with fiery green eyes and a bratty mouth who can't seem to keep it shut. Harper Monroe. My little menace. A pain in my fucking heart, if I had one. She fights me at every turn, makes crude jokes, tests me when she thinks I won't break. But then the thing with ice is, it doesn't always break, sometimes it melts. Harper I was trouble, loud, and sometimes though a lot of the time caught in the wrong crowd Mostly it ended up happening when I went to parties, trying to dull the void that sits in my heart now. I am in a constant battle of telling a lie and telling the truth, but the truth never seems to come to the surface, only the lies that I can only hold off on for so long. They think my family is rich like theirs, which isn't a complete lie, at least not until a year ago. They think my boyfriend makes me happy, but what they don't know is it's all a lie. But when a new job surfaces I can't afford to not take it. But that's when the job is to not only design a home and create it, but it's also to work alongside the customer. The cold woman whose eyes pass over me, but somehow when I watch her, she catches me watching her right back, and instead of looking away, she holds eye contact like she's intrigued before she catches herself. I tease her, I taunt her, I test her at every opportunity. I flirt and she snaps, I touch her and she snaps, but when it's the roles reversed. Well that's a different story entirely.

A cold and intimidating CEO, known for her sharp gaze and icy demeanor, strikes fear into everyone around her. Her mistrust runs deep, fueled by the betrayal of her previous secretary, who tried to sell company secrets. Enter her new secretary-a kind and sweet individual, eager to prove herself but unwittingly walking into a storm of hostility and suspicion. Their clashing personalities set the stage for a tense and transformative dynamic.

Some mistakes leave bruises long after the touch is gone. Thalia married young, believing love was supposed to be forever. Now, at nineteen, she's learning what heartbreak really means. A med student surviving on caffeine, deadlines and pure stubbornness falls hard... and breaks even harder. But shattered things can be put back together, if the right hands try. Maybe those hands belong to Artemis Thorne. Artemis Thorne is everything Thalia shouldn't want, cold, unreadable, unpredictable in all the ways people warn you about. A lawyer sharp enough to destroy careers and hearts with the same precision. She built her power brick by brick, wall by wall, until no one could get close enough to hurt her. And then Thalia walked into her office with a broken marriage, trembling voice, and eyes that shouldn't still believe in love. Artemis knows better. Knows she should keep professional distance. Knows this is a girl who needs safety, not temptation. But some things are harder to resist than they should be. Some things feel like a dare. And somewhere between broken vows and whispered confessions, Artemis starts wanting more than she's allowed to touch, something forbidden. Because Thalia isn't just a client. She's the weakness Artemis swore she'd never have again, soft, tempting, and easily to ruin.

Tatum Irving has known beyond a shadow of a doubt that she has been in love with Georgia Montgomery since they were twelve years old. Was it cliche, falling for her best friend? Obviously, but she couldn't help it, she was as powerless to her charm as any other person... And she'd believed that she'd charmed Georgia right back, how else was she supposed to take the late-night confessions, the jealousy, and the last two years of practically living as if they were already in love? However, when an ill-fated confession of long unspoken feelings turns into an unrequited mess, Tatum is left with the impossible decision of burying her feelings with a smile to keep the peace or losing her best friend and living out a lease with someone who now feels like a familiar stranger... Those are the only options, right? God, maybe confessing really WAS better in theory...

Stephanie Walker is eighteen, moving across the country from Los Angeles to New York to begin her dream: law school at NYU. A new city, a new home, new friends, new everything. She's excited, but sleepless nights, old wounds, and quiet struggles follow her everywhere. She wants to live like any other college student, to blend in, to feel normal, but life hasn't been simple, and surviving on her own is harder than she expected. Every late night, every study session, every solitary drive home reminds her that life doesn't come with easy answers. Some nights, she leans on quiet habits she'd never tell anyone about, just to make it to morning. Elena Shay is thirty-two, NYU's Dean and a respected law professor. Her life is built on control, precision, and endless responsibility. At work, she's commanding, elegant, untouchable. Outside it, she's soft, warm, and human, but never careless. Elena doesn't date casually; she doesn't waste time or energy on anything that isn't worth it. She's deliberate, certain, and careful... Until Stephanie. Stephanie isn't just another student. She's sharp, captivating, and unafraid to be herself in a way that draws Elena in deeper than it should. Suddenly, the carefully maintained line between professional and personal life begins to blur. The rules, the expectations, the life Elena's worked so hard to control all scream that nothing between them can ever happen. And yet, the pull becomes impossible to ignore. As their worlds collide, Stephanie discovers a side of life she's never dared to touch: warmth, comfort, attention, and desire from someone who sees her fully, not as a girl with a "rough" childhood, but as a woman. Together, Elena and Stephanie fall into chaos, vulnerability, and longing they didn't know they were missing. Every glance, every touch, and every moment carries risk. Risk of exposure, of judgment, of everything crashing down, all shaped by the choices resting in their hands.

Deception A dark romance where obsession and manipulation blur the lines between power and desire. Scarlett never expected her new job to come with a familiar face one she'd hoped to forget. The woman in the tailored blazer, cold eyes gleaming beneath the strobe lights of a Miami nightclub, now stands at the helm of Scarlett's career: Her new boss. What begins as a seemingly professional dynamic quickly spirals into something far more dangerous. Beneath the surface of polite smiles and sharp instructions lies a twisted game one neither of them fully controls. As tension simmers and boundaries dissolve, Scarlett finds herself tangled in a seductive web where nothing is as it truly seems. Is it obsession... or all a deception? Scarlett is about to learn just how deadly blurred lines can become. Especially when her past comes into play

Emery Wells is not someone who gets her heart stolen by anyone. But that all changes when she meets this charming girl that everyone seems to know. Maxine Morrow is a girl whose heart can't beat for no one. But the moment she locks her eyes with a blue eyed girl from her school she suddenly yearns for it to beat again. For her. Forever. Even if it comes with risks for both of them. Because some secrets bite back.

Hettie's last year at Cackle's Academy is thrown into discourse as she makes a new chaotic best friend who starts a relationship with the Deputy Headmistress. Then to her utter surprise, Hettie finds herself drawn to the new Head of Herbology: Ms. Reed. Thank you to everyone who read Focus. and if you are new here- this story is from an OG character point of view from Focus. so please read that first :) This chapter takes place after the Christmas Ball whilst Hettie is at home with her family for the break. Enjoy! So excited to share this new perspective on the completed story with you!

Sometimes we're not even fully aware of how similar hate and love really are. How closely they sit together, how thin the line is between them. One wrong word, one wrong choice, one moment of fear or anger, and you cross it without even realizing you've done so. That's how it had alwags been with Casey Miller and Olivia Lordan. They didn't hate each other for no reason. There were reasons, plenty of them, actually. Old wounds that never healed right, memories that calcified instead of fading, words spoken too young and carried for too long. But were those reasons valid enough? That was the question no one ever asked out loud. Because validity is subjective. Pain doesn't measure itself against intent. Trauma doesn't care how old you were, or what you meant to do. It just exists, heavy and unrelenting, shaping you whether you want it to or not. Everyone has flaws. Everyone has demons they fight in private. Some people turn inward and rot quietly. Some people explode. Some people run. Some people stay and harden. None of it is clean, and none of it is fair. And maybe that was the cruelest part for them. Not the hate. Not the anger. Not even the silence. But the fact that, once upon a time, it had been love, or something dangerously close to it, and that was what made everything else hurt so much more.