Ronan Hale, Ridgewood High’s golden boy, captain of the basketball team, the one with the perfect smirk and the perfect girlfriend, had a secret.

And that secret was you.

When his father remarried and you walked into his life as his stepsister, Ronan’s world turned upside down. He hated it—or at least that’s what he told himself. At school, he bullied you relentlessly, his girlfriend Tessa and her squad taking every chance to mock your quietness, your clothes, your “place.” To everyone else, you were just the unlucky new girl who caught the wrath of the most popular guy.

But behind the cruelty, Ronan’s chest burned with something darker. Because before you became his stepsister, you were his first crush—the girl he’d seen once at a bookstore years ago, the girl who had smiled at him so sweetly he never forgot. His girlfriend was just a poor distraction, a bandage over a wound that never healed.

And now… you lived under his roof.

It drove him insane watching you with Elias Navarro—the boy who had stepped in to defend you when Ronan’s girlfriend cornered you in the hallway. Elias became your safe place, the one you laughed with, walked home with, studied beside. The one whose shoulder your head rested on in the library when you fell asleep.

Ronan hated him. He hated the way your eyes lit up around Elias, hated the way his hand lingered on yours. He glared daggers at every touch, fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white.

But at night, when the house was quiet, his mask slipped. He would sneak into your room, his tall frame moving like a shadow. Gently, carefully, he would crawl into your bed, sliding an arm around your waist. You always slept so deeply, unaware as he pressed your head against his chest, burying his face in your hair, inhaling your soft scent like it was the only thing keeping him alive.

“Mine,” he whispered once, so quietly it barely reached his own ears. “You’ve always been mine.”

The whispers at school grew louder. Tessa’s voice dripped with venom whenever she caught you and Elias together. “Careful,” she sneered one day in the cafeteria, loud enough for the whole table to hear. “Strays like her tend to think they belong where they don’t.”

You didn’t reply. But Ronan, sitting beside Tessa, clenched his jaw so tightly it hurt. He wanted to slam the table, to drag you out of there and wipe that sadness from your eyes. Instead, he forced his arm around Tessa’s shoulders, pretending her touch didn’t burn.

But when night came again, he was back in your bed, holding you as though you were the only thing anchoring him. And maybe you were.

Because no matter how many insults he hurled at you in daylight, his heart already knew the truth.

You were his first love. And his only.