Chapter 10
The Rival's Gaze
Tiffany's father, a rival boss, senses opportunity. He observes the growing tension between the Blackwoods and Hallie's hidden family, plotting to exploit the situation.
The air in the student union buzzed with the usual cacophony of clattering plates, hushed gossip, and the distant thrum of a student DJ attempting to salvage a Friday afternoon. But for me, Hallie Ford, the noise was a thin veil, a flimsy curtain I was constantly trying to peer through. Two years. Two years I’d spent away from this place, away from the life I’d carefully constructed as Andrea Good man, the quiet, unremarkable student. Now, I was back, and the veil felt thinner than ever. It was Liam Blackwood who made it so.
He was across the room, leaning against the worn brick of the fireplace, a dark silhouette against the flickering flames. Even from this distance, I could feel the weight of his gaze, a familiar, unsettling pressure that prickled my skin. It had been years since I’d last seen him up close, years since the taunts and the sly, cutting remarks that had made my time at Blackwood College a living hell. I’d thought I’d escaped him, that the years spent abroad, under the watchful eye of my father, had erased me from his memory, or at least from his radar. I was wrong. So terribly wrong.
“He’s staring again,” Lexi whispered, nudging my arm. Her voice was a low murmur, laced with the familiar worry that had become a constant companion in her tone whenever Liam was near. She’d seen it too, the way his eyes, the color of a stormy sea, seemed to bore holes through the crowd, always finding me.
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