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The first woman Rafe had ever loved was his mother.
Vivenne Cameron was as radiant as she was quiet. She had an unshakable patience, a natural ease that softened the edges of life. She would bring a kind of calm wherever she went.
Rafe could still remember the way her hand rested on his shoulder, fingers caressing his cheek with a gentleness that seemed to hold all of him, even his most fractured pieces.
She was the only person who saw Rafe in full, who made him feel seen.
To Rafe, Vivienne was the only person who really understood him, her presence a rare, steady warmth that filled their sprawling home. She knew every quirk and shadow in him, as if she could see past the surface and into the boy he was trying so hard to become. The way she'd smooth back his hair with a laugh when he was being stubborn, or how she'd whisper to him about the adventures she saw in his future when he felt lost.
But that bond fractured when she died, an unexpected and unforgiving loss that struck when Rafe was only eight.
After she was gone, things unraveled fast. His father, Ward, seemed to fade too, his attention diverting to the family business with even more fervor, as if work could fill the void Vivienne had left. Rafe barely saw him around the house, and when he did, there was a new strain in Ward's expression, a sort of impatience as if he was bracing himself for whatever Rafe might need but couldn't ask for. Rafe could feel that even the moments they shared were like empty rooms—there, but hollow. Ward's absence wasn't just physical; it was a vacancy that settled in Rafe's life.
Rafe tried, at first, to reach out, to express himself in ways that he thought might pull his dad back, fighting, stealing, truanting, etc, but each attempt felt useless. The more he rebelled, the more neglectful Ward was toward Rafe.
Over time, Rafe started feeling his own edges soften and blur, like he was dissolving into the silence around him. It was as if he was losing himself, his sense of who he was, without even realising it.
In the absence of Vivienne's love, there was no one who truly saw him anymore, who cared to look close enough to notice the hollow growing within him. Those around him might have seen glimpses of it—the quiet moments, the flashes of anger—but they brushed it off as just Rafe being Rafe. To them, he was just another Cameron, bound to the family's wealth and reputation.
But deep down, Rafe knew he was slipping further from himself each day, carrying an ache for something he'd lost long ago, something he wasn't even sure he could name.
It was only a matter of time until he completely lost himself, and also losing the one person who wanted to understand him too.
