Page 3 of Burning Daylight
When I’m done, I check that the French doors to my balcony are locked, and then I slip under the covers, throwing my comforter over my head until it feels like I might suffocate in the dark.
Eventually, I fall asleep.
Two days later, my father’s sitting at our oversized circular table in the breakfast nook, sipping his coffee and ignoring everything around him.
I stare at him, confused.Why is he home again?
That’s twice in one week. More than I’ve seen him in months.
I lean against the white marble island and take a sip of my orange juice, my eyes snagging on the TV playing the local news.
The screen’s split. One side showing aRosebrook Ragsocial media post, the other the anchor’s tense expression.
A photo flashes of a mangled car wrapped around a tree, flames licking through the shattered windows and twisted metal, before the screen goes back to the tabloid’s post.
DEADLY CRASH IN HILLPOINT: ACCIDENT OR SUICIDE?
An up-and-coming artist Heather Argent and her two children are dead after a late-night crash in Montgomery territory. Cops say brake failure. Some whisper suicide.
Sources say hours before she was seen screaming at Marcus Montgomery.
Was she spiraling…or was this simply a tragic twist of fate?
Either way, Rosebrook Falls is buzzing—and we’re not done digging.
#RosebrookRag #TownWhispers #MontgomeryMess #WasItSuicide
My heart sinks.
When I look up at my father, he’s smiling.
PAXTON CALLOWAY ENGAGED?! LOVE OR LEVERAGE?
Rosebrook Falls’s most elusive bachelor, Paxton Calloway, is officially off the market, and the town is spinning.
The lucky lady?Tiffany Heartinger. Oil heiress, diamond lover, and professional enigma. Sources say the proposal was private, perfect, and suspiciously well timed.
Is it love? Or just a high-stakes merger dressed up like a fairy tale?
Word on the street: The Heartinger name has been circling Calloway boardrooms formonths.
Whatever it is, this wedding (if it actually happens) will be pure Rosebrook spectacle. And you know we’ll be watching.
#PaxtonPutARingOnIt #CallowayPowerPlay #HeartingerHustle #LoveOrLeverage #RosebrookRag #CallowayWatch
1
JULIETTE
SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD
Rosebrook Falls is cursed.
At least, that’s what the legends say.
Beverly has always told my three brothers and me stories of the town’s lore.
She’d whisper about how the actual buildings were poured on top of broken hearts and buried secrets. How two people fell in love despite being promised to others, and how it ended in despair.
