Chapter 3

Samantha Lee's life was already a mess. A top cheerleader in New York, juggling school pressure and a rocky relationship with her single mother, the last thing she expected was to catch her boyfriend cheating-at a party, no less. One reckless night and too much alcohol later, she wakes up next to Tyler-the arrogant, straight-A hockey star who's also her academic rival and personal nemesis. Things couldn't get worse... until her mother announces she's getting remarried-to Tyler's father.  Now, Samantha is stuck under the same roof as the one guy she swore to avoid. He's off-limits. Her stepbrother. The boy she can't stop thinking about. As secrets grow harder to hide and sparks fly in the most forbidden ways, Samantha and Tyler must face the truth: staying apart might be the right thing to do... but falling in love might be inevitable. Sport Affair (His Little Dirty Secret) is a steamy, emotional rollercoaster of forbidden love, rivalry, and second chances.

What if you fall deeply in love with someone who sees you as nothing but an inconvenience? What if he ignores every tear, every smile, every desperate attempt to matter to him? What if he crushes your hopes again and again and you still wait, foolishly, faithfully? Would you still cling to the hope that one day, he will finally love you back? But what if, just what if, the day you finally teach your heart to let him go, and he shows up begging for a second chance? Can you forgive the man who once was your heartless heartbreaker? Liana Celina Ruiz was hopelessly in love with her foster brother even at a young age. She pleaded with her foster mother to arrange their engagement and to her delight it happened. But love was never easy. It was sacrifice. Pain. Years of trying to prove her selfless love to a boy who never asked for it. Elias Joaquin Saavedra Rosario was the only heir to the Rosario fortune, a gifted artist with breathtaking looks, yet cold, distant, and ruthless. He refused to be swayed by his mother or his spoiled brat of a financèe he was supposed to marry. Instead, he vowed to show her she was mistaken, that he wasn't the man for this determined orphanage girl. Now tell me, who will win this war? The girl who gave everything? Or the boy who gave nothing but pain? Heads up: THESE TWO WILL ABSOLUTELY TEST YOUR PATIENCE. THEY'LL FRUSTRATE YOU, ANGER YOU, AND PROBABLY MAKE YOU WANT TO SCREAM. IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE CHAOS, IT'S OKAY TO STOP HERE. IF YOU CAN HANDLE IT... WELCOME TO THE FIRE.

River Wilson has her entire life planned: earn top grades, avoid distractions, and graduate as valedictorian. Love? Boys? Drama? Not on the schedule. But her perfect plan unravels the moment she steps into her new university apartment... and finds Taylor DeLuca shirtless, tattooed, and infuriatingly smug, standing in her kitchen. Thanks to a university housing glitch and a name too ambiguous to question, River ends up living with the one thing she promised to avoid: a boy who looks like trouble and acts like he invented it. Now she's armed with a list of house rules, a schedule tighter than her ponytail, and one unbreakable boundary: no flirting. But Taylor has a smirk that makes her forget her rules... and a past that's more complicated than his cocky charm lets on. What happens when the girl who has everything under control is forced to live with the boy who thrives on chaos? Let's just say... Rule Number Eight is about to get broken.

After eight years in captivity, I was finally rescued. I thought it was the beginning of a new life with my mother. But she didn't even look at me. She ran into the arms of a handsome stranger, her real husband, and I was treated like a dirty secret from her past. They called me a contamination, a reminder of their trauma. My new stepsister set their Doberman on me, and as the dog's teeth sank into my arm, I looked up and saw my mother watching from the window. She met my eyes for a second, then slowly closed the curtains. In that moment, the last bit of hope I had died. The shallow bond of family was completely gone, and I finally gave up. But they made one mistake. The family patriarch, suspicious after a car accident, ordered a secret DNA test. The results came back on the day of my stepsister's birthday party, revealing a truth that would burn their perfect world to the ground.

I was the scholarship kid at Westbrook University, dating the star quarterback, Gage Barton. Everyone on campus thought I was living a fairytale, the brilliant girl from the wrong side of the tracks who had captured the prince's heart. My roommate, Cayden, was my best friend, the one I trusted with all my secrets. But my fairytale was a lie. My prince was a cruel narcissist who saw me as his pet project, and my best friend was a snake who secretly slept with him, seething with jealousy over everything I had earned. Their betrayal culminated in an act of pure evil. Using my own laptop, Cayden permanently deleted my entire thesis-one hundred and twelve pages of research that represented my only ticket out of their world. My future was gone in a single click. When I confronted them, they laughed. "It's just a stupid paper," Gage sneered, accusing me of deleting it myself to save face. They stood together, a united front of privilege and cruelty, believing they had finally broken me. But they were wrong. I calmly walked over to Cayden's desk, where her own laptop was open, her final project displayed on the screen. Next to it sat a full glass of water. I picked it up and poured it directly onto the keyboard. The screen sparked, then went black. As she shrieked in horror, I repeated his words back to her, my voice cold as ice. "It's just a stupid project. Why are you making such a big drama out of it?"

I was the scholarship girl with a 4.0 GPA, dating the untouchable Branson Ayers. My dream of winning the Rhodes Scholarship was just one interview away. Then, a deepfake video with my face on it destroyed my life overnight. The scholarship was gone, and suddenly, I was the girl from the video. I ran to Branson for help, only to overhear the horrifying truth from behind a hedge. He' d orchestrated the whole thing to give the scholarship to his childhood sweetheart, Kennedy. But the cruelest cut was the second secret. For two years, the passionate man who came to me in the dark wasn't my boyfriend at all. It was his identical twin brother, Hanson. I was just a pawn in their sick game-a body for Hanson to use while Branson kept himself "pure" for the woman they both loved. When I called my parents, they didn't ask if I was okay. They disowned me for shaming the family and booked me a one-way ticket to London. Betrayed, used, and discarded by everyone I trusted, I took the flight. But as the city lights disappeared below, I made a vow. One day, I would return. And they would regret ever thinking they could destroy me.