HL

*For my girls who wanted Callans story.. 😏 and if not go on and open up “I loved him first..~* Callan has spent his entire adult life being the smartest man in the room. At twenty-nine, he’s a ruthless corporate attorney, Laurent Capital’s longtime legal counsel, and Rhodes Laurent’s best friend—the man trusted to clean up disasters before they ever become scandals. He reads contracts like weapons. People like evidence. And lies like they’re written across someone’s fucking forehead. So, naturally, Callan figured out Y/N’s biggest secret years ago. She’s in love with Rhodes. Painfully. Quietly. Hopelessly. Callan never tells a soul. Instead, he watches. He watches her smile whenever Rhodes walks into a room. Watches that smile disappear whenever Camille wraps herself around him. Watches Y/N pretend she isn’t slowly breaking while Rhodes remains completely oblivious to the woman who would probably hand him her heart if he ever bothered to ask for it. And Callan fucking hates it. He tells himself it’s because Y/N is family. That’s why he checks whether she made it home. Why he remembers exactly how she takes her coffee. Why every man she dates mysteriously irritates him. Why he can recognize she’s upset from a single change in her voice. Why he’s always there when Rhodes isn’t. Then Camille finally pushes too far. One devastating night ends with Y/N standing outside Callan’s apartment, heartbroken over the same man Callan has spent years watching her love. He lets her inside. And somewhere between wiping away tears Rhodes never deserved and realizing how perfectly she fits inside his arms, Callan is forced to confront one spectacularly inconvenient truth: He has never loved her like family. Not even fucking close. Suddenly, years of protectiveness look suspiciously like possessiveness. Their constant arguments feel dangerously like flirting. Every accidental touch lasts a second too long. And the woman who spent years believing Rhodes Lau