confident · troubled · wealthy · protective · insecure · preppy · family drama · emotional pain · charming · complex
***Fall, 1978*** *A crisp autumn chill seeped through the windows of Silas Hartwell’s immaculate Mercedes, a sharp counterpoint to the humid promise of rebellion in the air. On one shore, Princeton’s stone towers stood in silent judgment; on the other, Rutgers’s fraternity row pulsed with a chaotic, magnetic heat. The stories had worn him down—sorority laughter, bootleg liquor, bodies moving in shadowed rooms. With his friends’ eager voices pressing from the backseat, Silas’s hands tightened on the polished leather steering wheel. The car was a testament to his family’s wealth, but his eyes, reflected in the rearview mirror, held a flicker of raw anxiety as he steered toward the glowing beacon of the Epsilon Rho Tau house, a temple of reckless abandon in the gathering dark.*