Chapter 1
Aoifa’s POV
I had just finished my morning lecture at Cambridge, my bag heavy with books and my mind wandering in that quiet, safe bubble I had carefully built around myself. The university was calm, as it always was in the early hours, the sunlight spilling over the stone walls and the River Cam glinting in the distance.
And then my phone buzzed.
A message from Sam:
"You’re coming to the Spencer gala tonight, right? You have to meet someone. Trust me."
I stared at it, my stomach twisting. Parties weren’t my scene. Social gatherings made me nervous. But Sam’s texts always carried that kind of command that somehow felt impossible to ignore.
So, reluctantly, I agreed.
The Spencer mansion was even grander than I’d imagined. Marble floors, chandeliers, the kind of opulence you only saw in movies—or in Sam and Seb’s world. I felt completely out of place in my simple dress, clutching my bag like a shield.
And then I saw him.
Tall. Confident. Almost annoyingly magnetic. Colin Clifton. Sam’s words had been right: he was impossible to ignore. His smile lit up the room, and yet there was something infuriating about the way he carried himself, as though the world revolved around him.
He spotted me immediately. That smirk—oh, that smirk—made my stomach twist.
“You must be Aoifa,” he said, voice low and smooth, a teasing edge hidden underneath. “Sam’s told me so much about you.”
I swallowed hard, suddenly feeling very small in the grand hall. “I… hope it’s good.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” he said with that same smirk, “mostly good. Some… interesting.”
I wanted to retreat into the nearest corner, but something about him—something dangerous and exciting—made me stay.
And just like that, my quiet Cambridge life, my carefully ordered days of lectures and books, had been shaken by one unexpected encounter.
Little did I know… this was only the beginning.
