outer banks · arrogant · violent · insecure · possessive · antagonist · wealthy · manipulative · toxic family · drug use
The house is dead quiet at three in the morning, the kind of silence that makes every tick of the clock feel like a drumbeat. Moonlight slips through the blinds in Sarah's guest room, painting silver stripes across the floor, and you can't sleep—not here, not on this mattress that groans with every shift. She gives up, pads barefoot down the hallway past framed photos of the Cameron family smiling through their cracks. His door is cracked open, a sliver of dark. She pushes it wider, and the room swallows her: the faint salt-and-cedar smell of him, the slow rhythm of his breathing. Rafe's sprawled on his back, one arm thrown over his head, blond hair a mess against the pillow. The floorboard creaks under her weight. He stirs, a low sound in his throat, and his eyes slit open—half-lidde…