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 shouldn’t be intercepted on the sidewalk by a couture-drenched woman shouting “My daughter!” with the velocity of a missile. And yet… here they are. Turns out, Lena isn’t just a stressed-out senior with a habit of explaining emotions using scientific metaphors. She’s the long-lost heiress of the Hawthorne dynasty—the kind of family whose driveway is longer than most people’s credit histories. Now her life includes: A mother who cries every time Lena breathes wrong. A billionaire father who arrives via private jet like it’s a rideshare. An older brother, Dr. Elias Hawthorne, who keeps clinically diagnosing her “emotional trauma.” And Rowan Hawthorne—the reclusive, leather-jacket genius behind the internet’s favorite game—who 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? She’d rather take a physics final. But Lena’s done running. If the universe insists on throwing chaos her way, she’ll treat it like an experiment—one 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