Willow Heights Prep Academy: The Exile

My name is Harper Apple, and people say I’m rotten to the core. When my shot comes in the form of a scholarship to Willow Heights Prep, you can bet your ass I take it. If getting out of this hellhole town means spending my last two years of high school at an elite academy full of rich, entitled pricks, then bring it on.

My name is Harper Apple, and people say I’m rotten to the core. I’m not the only one. The Dolce boys aren’t just dangerous, privileged, rich alphaholes. They’re a gang of three psychopaths backed by a pack of enablers and worshipped by their fangirls. And I want in. When I witness their unhinged, shocking violence firsthand, I know I can’t let them continue to ruin lives the way they’ve done for the past few years.

Navigating the halls of Willow Heights as a Dolce girl is no easy task, and doing so with ulterior motives only makes it more difficult. With the Dolce boys always watching and the Bitch Pack eager to see me fall, nothing is guaranteed. I can’t forget for even a moment that this is all a game, that Royal is still intent on breaking me. Not if I can break him first. Though my heart and body belong to Royal Dolce, I can’t let his twisted games break my mind, too. I have to stay sharp and gain the one thing I haven’t gotten yet — his trust.

The Dolces broke me, but it doesn’t matter. They shattered my body and soul, and when they were done, they left me for dead. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t care about anything. Not even the one person I thought would never betray me, that I could always count on, the one person who always had my back. Me. I don’t matter. Royal taught me that. Now, a stranger tends me like the flowers in his garden. He plays with me like a doll he pulled from the trash. He doesn’t want to fix me. He wants to turn me into someone else. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care who I am. So I let him.

The Dolces broke me, but with perseverance and dedication, Royal has begun to heal me. He nourishes my body and soul, and if I let him, he might just save me. But I’m not sure I can let him. After what he did, how can I let myself love again? But how can I help myself? Royal may be a broken man, even a monster, but he didn’t become that way overnight. He didn’t get there alone. I was part of his destruction, just as he was part of mine. And just as he has moved worlds to help me, I must atone for what I’ve done, too.