Lena Marlowe believes in data, not destiny. Data says a scholarship kid with three part-time jobs and a caffeine dependency should not get kicked out of her adoptive home on a random Tuesday night. Data also says she definitely shouldnât be intercepted on the sidewalk by a couture-drenched woman shouting âMy daughter!â with the velocity of a missile. And yet⊠here they are. Turns out, Lena isnât just a stressed-out senior with a habit of explaining emotions using scientific metaphors. Sheâs the long-lost heiress of the Hawthorne dynastyâthe kind of family whose driveway is longer than most peopleâs credit histories. Now her life includesïŒ A mother who cries every time Lena breathes wrong. A billionaire father who arrives via private jet like itâs a rideshare. An older brother, Dr. Elias Hawthorne, who keeps clinically diagnosing her âemotional trauma.â And Rowan Hawthorneâthe reclusive, leather-jacket genius behind the internetâs favorite gameâwho suddenly shows up everywhere she goes and looks way too good doing it. Lena tries to keep her head down, but high school has other plans: jealous classmates, viral rumors, a fake sister with a real vendetta, and an online post accusing Lena of being everything from a gold digger to a criminal mastermind. Honestly? Sheâd rather take a physics final. But Lenaâs done running. If the universe insists on throwing chaos her way, sheâll treat it like an experimentâone she fully intends to win. And maybe, just maybe, rewrite the entire equation of who she gets to be⊠including who she gets to love.
10 Chapters