Published on:
17-03-2022

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"Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo! Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Heather sighed, closing her book—Romeo and Juliet—and stared out her window at the reddening sunset sky. She got up from her bed and walked toward her balcony, sliding the door open and stepping into the fresh air.

It was one of the finest summer evenings in Orange County and the gentle wind that bustled past her brushed her fair skin, free of the pernicious Los Angeles smog. Looking up at the sky that was a shade between red and orange, Heather rested her arms on the glass railing as she leaned forward and repeated Juliet's words, propping herself up one arm and resting her cheek on her palm, as she smiled at herself, to an invisible moon in the sky and to her invisible Romeo.

Lost in her fantasies, Heather's eyes absently traveled past her left side, where she could see the front yard of her house and the boxy concrete garage. Their home was in a severe, modernist style, to their father's liking, since he was a typical businessman in sharp suits and plain ties. Glass and concrete in cubes of varying sizes stacked on top of each other to form their house and garage, where she now glimpsed her older brother's black Lamborghini pulling in.

She straightened suddenly and backed up against the wall in order to hide.

Might he have seen her talking and smiling to herself dreamily? Then she would be in trouble, especially if her younger brother was also in the car—both had been out to their cousin's house together. He would tease her to death saying she was in love with someone.

And she was definitely not.

Heather hadn't been in love with anyone in her real life, as far as she could remember. Perhaps there had been a silly crush or two when she was younger, but never had she ever developed any real feelings toward any boys. In her school, she was aware that half of the high school boys had crushes on her, but she never showed any interest in any of them. Not because they weren't charming enough—though to her, they weren't charming at all, not even close to her imaginary book boyfriends—but Heather never wanted to throw herself into a trying-love system, as she called it.

She wanted her boyfriend to be her first love, first kiss, and to be her future husband as well. Because to have every first with your true love was something simply special.

The truth was she wasn't interested in romance, though she had nearly the best collection of romantic novels in her library. And as much as she might not appear romantic outside, on the inside, she had a fire for her future love that she had been keeping for the perfect time, waiting for the right one to show up.

But how to know who was the right one? Heather had no idea. But she trusted in her God, He Who had designed a perfect happy future for her.

Heather exited her room and sprinted down the stairs to the ground floor, to find out if either of her brothers had seen her in her dreamy state, and to block their chance from spitting it out to her younger sisters and teasing her about it. She had four wonderful siblings whom she loved and adored. They were absolute angels—unless you did something to get on their nerves.

Fredson, who preferred to be called Fred or Freddie, was the eldest. Then she, Heatherin, called Heather, was the second. Areline, who preferred Arel, came after her. Finally, there were brother and sister, the twins Fyodor and Frederica, whose names were shortened to Fodd and Ferry.

The ten-year-old Ferry's whining demanding voice rang from the living room on the ground floor as Heather hurried down the stairs. "Hey! Give it back!"

"Dang it, Fodd!" Arel called out in a fit of rage. "What's your problem?"

"Arel, get the remote!" Ferry urged her sister.

"What's going on here?" Heather asked, landing down the stairs in the living room as she heard Fodd shrieking and struggling.

As an answer, she saw him struggling to break free from Arel's grasp while holding the TV remote away from Ferry's reach.

Heather shook her head and fought the urge to roll her eyes at them.

"A little help, please?" Arel asked Heather as she saw her.

"No, Heather, no!" Fodd shrieked again, seeing her come to her sisters' rescue.

Heather flashed him a sweet smile before grabbing his right wrist that held the TV remote and took it out of his hold, holding it high above her head as Arel let go of him. He tried to launch himself at her.

"Come on, Heather, toss it to me." Ferry kept her hands in position to catch the remote.

"Heather!" Fodd whined as Heather prepared to throw the remote to Ferry, ignoring him.

"That's what you get for interrupting the girls from invading their screen time." Heather prepared to throw the remote but someone grabbed her wrist from behind and in the next moment, the remote was out of her hands.

"Ah, thanks sweetheart," said Freddie jovially. He winked and casually walked past her and sat in front of their TV. "Just what I wanted,"

"Boys won, girls lost." Fodd sneered at his sisters smugly before joining his brother on the sofa.

"But we were watching!" Ferry stood before Freddie with folded arms across her chest and narrowed her green eyes at him.

"Just a sec, honey," he dismissed her, pulling her to his lap as he skipped through the channels on the TV screen. "Where's dad and mom, by the way?"

"Out on a date," Arel replied.

Heather held her breath, watching the back of her two brothers as she waited for them to say something about seeing her talking to herself on her balcony like Juliet, and to rib her. But nothing happened. Freddie and Fodd sat coolly on the sofa as they clicked past each channel. Heather dropped her tensed shoulders in relief and walked around to the sofa, sitting on its arm.

"What's so urgent to barge in like this so suddenly?" Ferry continued to huff.

"I just wanna check something."

"Check what?" she demanded to know, truly displeased at the fact that her brothers had invaded her screen time.

"A news story," Freddie continued to change the channels.

"What news?" Arel inquired him.

He didn't respond.

"Wait, is it another mafia takedown?" Heather asked Freddie, a little alarmed, remembering the terrific news of a mafia takedown a few weeks ago that had taken away her sleep countless times since. The mafia kidnapped boys and girls at an age when they were too young to remember their families; all of them were from wealthy families, but no one knew the purpose behind it. When one child escaped and ran into the cops, the world came to know about the cruel gang in the shadows. And now, all the children were safe and reunited with their families, their keepers were arrested and under questioning. But the mafia boss had gone into hiding—who, more shockingly, was a successful businessman.

"No, not that," Freddie's answer pulled her out of her recollections. "This is something else."

Heather felt relieved to know that and was about to reply to him when her younger brother spoke ahead of her.

"But I thought we were going to watch a movie!" Fodd protested, receiving a warning glare from his twin, who was not letting anyone invade her screen time once her older brother was done with checking whatever he wanted.

"Just a sec, buddy," Freddie's voice rang impatiently.

"What exactly is this news and what's the big fuss about it?" Heather teased Freddie. "Do you even know where to find it?"

"I just wanted to confirm—oh, here it is," Freddie straightened on the sofa with Ferry on his lap and set the remote beside him, which Ferry was now eyeing.

Heather glanced at the reporter with disinterest. Watching the news wasn't her thing—unless it was serious, like a mafia takedown—but this one got her attention as the news anchor mentioned a familiar name.

"... caught red-handed for possessing drugs and hosting a drug party in his apartment, in Orange County. Starvelth..."

"Starvelth?" Heather gasped in disbelief, glancing aside at her brother. "Starvelth? Really?"

Freddie pivoted to look at her as the reporter continued speaking. "Not Lucas Starvelth. It's his son, Leonardo."

"Oh, that doppelgänger son of his?" Heather recalled seeing him in the magazines before—as supposed, a few years ago. She hadn't been a big fan of the tabloids lately; in fact, nothing but fiction.

"As far as I know, Lucas Starvelth has only two kids,—well, they're not really kids anymore but—one is a boy and the other one is a girl," Freddie answered, sarcastically. "So yeah, this is probably that son."

She rolled her eyes at Freddie's comical answer.

Leonardo Starvelth was a Hollywood supermodel, and his father Lucas was a starring Hollywood actor. Leonardo was as nearly as famous as him. He had appeared beside his father to play his on-screen son when he was younger, but after he had grown up, Leonardo preferred to be a model than an actor. And Heather couldn't believe this was that Leonardo; how could someone as famous as him be so reckless and get caught?

She listened to the news reporter eagerly and learned that Leonardo had been caught early that morning from his apartment in Orange County. Someone who had known about this illegal drug party passed the information to the FBI and they raided the apartment to catch Leonardo and his friends red-handed, most of them unconscious. His father, Lucas Starvelth, was on the move to fight for his son, but it didn't look possible that he could win, because the cops had proof that it was Leonardo who hosted this party. Though he hadn't been using when they caught him, he had drugs in his pockets.

Heather couldn't imagine how shameful this will be now, both for Leonardo and the brilliant reputation his dad had built for himself worldwide.

She slid down to the sofa next to Arel from its arm as she listened to further information about the news, holding her breath when they showed some shaky, grainy clips of Leonardo being escorted by the cops into a car. He looked sober, unlike the others at the party and Heather tried to get a glimpse of his face. It had been so long since she had seen him anywhere in the magazines—probably because she hadn't read any magazines lately.

Suddenly, a picture of Leonardo from a photoshoot appeared on the screen, and Heather's breath hitched in her throat. His eyes. They were the first thing she noticed, their bright depths of sapphire, bordered by dark long lashes. His dark eyebrows had a brooding look about them that formed the stunning, smoldering look that could make any girl run out of breath in their lungs. He looked older than her, Heather was certain about that, much older than her brother; she didn't catch his age the reporter gave out, though he must have been in his early twenties.

His hair was dark and some of the front locks had fallen over his forehead from its perfectly styled sideways position; his sharp, perfect angular features were yet another thing that could cause a girl heartache. His flawless, rosy lips were plump and perfect-shaped; his jaw was perfect; his cheekbones, sharp; his nose, straight...

Heather tried taking in the details of his features inside her head, and realized she couldn't describe any part of him without using the word perfect. Because everything about him from the outside was dazzling, outstanding, gorgeous and... perfect.

For the first time in history, Heather saw someone—perhaps other than her brother Fredson—as handsome, unbelievably handsome. Had he been this handsome the last time she had seen him in magazines? Or had she just missed it? Anyways, Heather had to admit it; he was so gorgeous, like an angel would be.

Only when the channel got switched—by an impatient Ferry who wasn't interested in Starvelth's arrest—did Heather realize that she was staring at the screen like an idiot, mouth open like a fish out of water. She mentally slapped her head and composed herself, briefly glancing aside to see if anyone had noticed her like this; but to her relief, they didn't.

As Freddie and Fodd tried to pry the remote out of Ferry's hands, nearly chasing her around the room, and as Arel rolled her eyes at them before getting lost in her phone, Heather found herself zoning out into her thoughts wondering about Leonardo, who was now held in jail for further questioning.

The rest of the day, Leonardo never left Heather's head. Even as she lay on her bed to sleep after her nightly prayer, she couldn't force her eyes to seek rest. They stayed open and awake, remembering his angelic face and the smoldering look of his sapphire eyes.

Why? Why did he do that? If he had wanted to use his drugs so badly, then why didn't he think to shut himself in his room and use as much as he wanted, rather than wanting to host a party that had gotten him in trouble beyond any nightmares he might've ever had? Or, why did he even want to use drugs? Why, why, why? Why would he want to spoil and destroy his soul and body like this? If he hadn't done this, if he hadn't been someone using drugs, then he wouldn't have been in a situation like now. God knows what would come for him and his family. Would he regret everything, or was he going mad in his cell from frustration?

Heather eventually welcomed the thoughts of him into her mind, not knowing that one day she'd welcome him into her heart as well.

—— ★ ——

a/n: Welcome back, my dear old and new readers! I can't believe I finally updated the first chapter of this book that I had been waiting to write since God gave me ideas for, last October. Thanks to God for all the help He did for me to write down this chapter as I was honestly a bit nervous; due to how long it's been since I'd lost my touch with 'third person's pov' when I started writing my other book last year in the first person pov.

Anyways, I'm glad this chapter turned out to be much better than I expected, and I hope you liked it. There's more to come!

Please don't forget to vote if you liked the chapter :)