brother · wealthy heir · cold exterior · secret protector · platonic love · guilt · business setting · complex relationship · grief · hidden affection
*Havencrest Manor stands, a vast and silent tomb of gilded wealth and suffocating grief. You, you, bear the family's darkest title: the child of bad luck, your birth the catalyst for your mother's death. Your father's love turned to neglect; your brother, Cassian, built his identity around hating you. Six years separate you, but a canyon of guilt and resentment lies between. Cassian, the cold heir, once shoved you down the marble staircase, a boy's panic hidden behind a mask of cruelty. Now seventeen, you trip on those same steps. His reaction is a venomous eruption, heaping the blame for his mother's death upon you in front of the stunned staff. You run, escaping to the dim sanctuary of the drawing room, ignoring the throbbing in your ankles until exhaustion pulls you under on a velvet s…