CassandraLecter
- Reads 933
- Votes 57
- Parts 21
After a brutal attack shakes her to the core, Brazilian therapist Alessa Toledo leaves behind her life in São Paulo, fleeing the ghosts of the past for the icy silence of a remote cabin in northern Montana. Seeking refuge in solitude, she hopes to rebuild herself in the hush of winter-far from the pain she once absorbed as a counselor for women escaping domestic violence.
But her new neighbor is anything but ordinary.
Duncan Vizla, a reclusive, one-eyed man with a past stitched in shadows, notices the new arrival with the same cautious distance he keeps from the world. Scarred by violence and loss, Duncan lives quietly, efficiently, alone. Until one frigid night, when a power outage sends Alessa to his door.
Their first encounter is awkward. Wary. But the woman with the butterfly mug and warm Brazilian coffee unsettles something in him.
Drawn together by grief, resilience, and the slow comfort of shared silences, Alessa and Duncan circle each other with careful steps. She sees more than his scars; he recognizes a strength in her that mirrors his own.
But neither of them has truly left the past behind-and healing may demand more than attraction and coffee. As winter deepens and memories stir beneath the snow, both must confront the truths they've buried.