She was dumped in silence an hour before graduation and walked into a party pretending everything was fine. Someone else caught her when the world nearly dropped her: the quiet boy she never expected to need. Janessa has been carrying other people’s expectations all her life — a grief that made her small, a mother who recoils at the sight of her, a past boyfriend who leaves like it’s nothing. Finnian shows up when she’s most broken: first to split her from the predators on the street, then to put a mattress in his living room and tell her, “You can stay.” He doesn’t ask for a contract; she signs an IOU with her pride. The city will gossip, a transfer student will arrive like polished danger, small lies will become viral whispers, and someone will slash the only shield Finnian can’t mend with money. They will trade desserts for first kisses, homework for midnight vigils, and paper promises for real danger. This is a story about a messy, stubborn love that begins in a scarred apartment and keeps getting interrupted — by jealousy, by power, by a woman willing to manufacture an attack for applause. Janessa wants shelter. Finnian will give his body. But who will protect the life behind her shame when the past comes to collect? He became her shelter. The war for her heart — and her family’s secret — has just begun.
20 Chapters
