The city wakes up to scandalous headlines. But far from the glossy headlines and mansion halls, something stirs in the small, forgotten town of Eldale.
---
She was 20, barely 21, with skin like burnt caramel, a gaze that refused to be broken, and lips that had never whispered lies. Ivy lived in a single-bedroom house with her grandmother and her younger sister, Makena.
She wasn't born into riches. But she was born into secrets.
She had never met her father—but whispers in the village claimed he was once a ghost in the city's business scene. All she had was a locket, a last letter, and a secret she promised never to reveal.
And now, with a crumpled university acceptance letter in her hand from Royal Westwood University—a school only billionaires could afford—she stood with two suitcases at the city bus stop.
"I don't belong there," she muttered.
"But you will," Makena said with a grin. "You're not going there to blend in. You're going to conquer."
--
Ochieng was late for his lecture, his coat draped over one shoulder, sunglasses hiding the storm in his eyes. He hadn't spoken to Zahra since the ball. Clara kept updating him on Leon's collapse, Storm's disappearance, and now… a new admission.
A scholarship girl.
"Why should I care?" Ochieng asked.
"She's from Eldale."
Ochieng froze.
The name Eldale wasn't just a town. It was a memory. A scar.
"Get me her file," he whispered.
--
As students flooded into the grand campus hall, Bianca made her entrance like a queen without a crown. She wore a beige trench coat over a white slit dress. Her walk? Smooth. Calculated. Lethal. She had come to invest in tech startups within the university—but secretly, she had eyes on Ochieng.
"He has the potential to break kingdoms," she told her assistant. "But first, I need to break him."
---
Ivy entered the classroom, nervous, clutching her second-hand bag. Every head turned. Not because she was loud or flashy—but because something about her didn't belong.
Zahra saw her first. And in that one look, she knew Ivy was not here by mistake.
Ochieng entered late, dropped his notes, glanced at the new girl…
Their eyes met. For a second, the world stopped.
And just like that, Zahra felt something she had never felt before.
Fear.
---