Claire slammed the car door behind her, the gravel crunching under her boots as she stared at the quaint stone cottage nestled in the rolling hills of the Cotswolds. At twenty-one, she'd just dropped out of university in London, too much pressure, too many parties that turned into regrets, and her dad had insisted she come stay with him and his new wife, Lydia, in this sleepy village. The air smelled of fresh hay and wild...

Stephanie hadn’t expected the Algarve to feel this… cinematic. The hotel shimmered like something out of a travel magazine—whitewashed walls, terracotta tiles, and an infinity pool that seemed to spill straight into the Atlantic. She stood at reception, clutching her passport and the last-minute booking confirmation, still half in disbelief that she’d actually come. Her friend Clara had insisted. “You need sun, sea, and s...

I couldn’t believe it when I got my acceptance letter from Edinburgh University. I’d dreamt about going there for years—the city’s gothic charm, the cobbled streets, the sense of history clashing with modern student life. And now it was real. Even better, I’d be staying in student accommodation, which meant freedom—real freedom—for the first time in my life. My parents drove me up early on a Saturday morning. We parked ne...