Chapter 3

It didn't take long for Julian to show me what his "brotherly responsibility" really looked like.

I'd been back on campus for a solid week. Every internship application I'd submitted to companies in Ashford City that matched my major came back rejected. All of them.

I went to the faculty member who handled internship placements. He stammered through it.

"Hazel, think hard. Did you cross someone? Somebody with your last name —"

The sun was blazing overhead, but a chill ran through me anyway.

I hadn't thought Julian would actually use the entire Harrington network to blackball me — all for Sienna.

If I couldn't land a matching internship fast, my internship credit would be zero.

Which meant I wouldn't graduate.

Julian never hesitated when it came to hurting me.

I wandered the campus in a daze for a long time. And then one name came to me.

Adrian.

Ashford wasn't a one-family town. Adrian was one of the Sterling heirs; he'd been running a division at the family company for years.

As official fiancés, Adrian and I weren't exactly close, but we'd exchanged polite calls on every holiday. Every time I heard his voice on the other end of the line, I'd been both thrilled and nervous, forced to stay composed and polite in my replies.

He had no idea that one stuffed doll had kept me attached to him for years.

The call connected. My palms went damp.

This was my first time ever asking someone for a favor. And it had to be the boy I'd been in love with.

Adrian barely hesitated when he heard me out.

"Come by tomorrow. Bring your internship paperwork, go straight to HR and file your onboarding. We've got a position open that matches your major."

Relief washed over me. The tears I'd been holding back finally receded.

"Adrian. Thank you."

He laughed softly on the other end, and his usually formal voice carried something warmer — something almost flirtatious.

"Relax. Intern under me, and we'll actually get to spend time together."

After I finished the onboarding paperwork at Adrian's company — Sterling Ventures — I finally checked my phone and saw a message Julian had sent at some point.

"Hazel. If you keep being stubborn, you'll pay a higher price. As your brother, this is my last warning."

I stared at it in silence, then blocked his number.

Adrian and I worked at the same company, but I barely saw him. He didn't give me any special treatment either. My assigned supervisor had me running projects, drafting proposals, pulling late nights. It was constant.

The manager kept piling extra fieldwork on top. It was exhausting, but in a way I was relieved.

I was grateful just to have the internship. The least I could do was work hard, learn fast, take whatever was thrown at me.

My supervisor was an older woman, not easy to work with. She'd tear apart my proposals over and over, call me at two in the morning to redo a slide deck, chew me out in front of the whole team when she wasn't satisfied.

I took it.

One time she laid into me over a data error, and Adrian happened to walk past and catch it on camera.

I rushed to find him afterwards, explained the mistake was mine, begged him not to hold it against her.

He just smiled, something unreadable in it.

Luckily, my supervisor did start warming up to me as I kept putting in the hours. She'd even joke around sometimes.

"Hazel, that stubborn streak of yours — you remind me of someone I used to know. Someone I really respected."

"Hazel, if you weren't actually an intern, I'd swear the company signed you into a slave contract. You finish my projects, then knock out whatever extra the manager hands you, then pull an overnight shift and still show up to ride with me to a factory the next morning. Ten full-time people couldn't hold up the way you do."

"You must have pissed somebody off, huh?"

I smiled and said nothing.

This chance was hard-won. Working harder was the least I could do.