Adalina's life is a relentless cycle of pain. Since the age of 6, she endures the daily horrors of an abusive household. Her stepfather's cruel words slice deeper than any knife, while her stepbrother's twisted games leave her feeling trapped and helpless. Her mother, once a source of love, has become an accomplice to the torment, prioritizing her own comfort over Adalina's safety. In this suffocating darkness, she feels invisible, unlovable, and utterly alone. Yet beneath her fractured exterior lies an unexpected resilience. Adalina has cultivated her own strength in the shadows, honing knife and gun skills in secret, driven by a desperate need to survive. She battles not only her abusers but also the suffocating weight of despair that threatens to consume her. With each passing day, hope feels more like a distant memory. Everything shifts when her estranged mafia brothers finally learn the truth about her plight. For years, they've searched for her, unaware of the horrors she faced. Their arrival is both a blessing and a curse, awakening emotions Adalina has long buried. Among them is Ezra, her brother's best friend, whose presence ignites a flicker of warmth in her cold, desolate world. But as much as she yearns for connection, the scars of her past make her wary of love. As her brothers plot to rescue her, Adalina finds herself torn between the safety of their world and the haunting familiarity of her pain. She must confront her demons and face the reality of her situation. Will she find the strength to embrace the love and loyalty of her family, or will her past keep her shackled in despair? In this heart-wrenching tale, Adalina's journey is one of survival, self-discovery, and the search for a love that feels almost impossible. Can she break free from the shadows that have defined her life, or will she remain trapped in a cycle of hopelessness?

"We fought an uphill battle. One we had no hope of winning." ~~~ Felicity-Flick as most call her-Carter, has learned a thing or two in her 12 years of life. How to deal with drunk parents without waking the neighbors, how to smoke a cigarette without burning your fingers, and how to be abandoned by your siblings without losing your mind. All skills acquired through heartbreak and survival. Cigarette smoke filled lungs, late night talks on rooftops, make up most of who Flick is. But when her fractured family begins to mend itself, Flick is faced with a new chapter in her life that involves the very people she never wanted to see again. Started: January 10th 2021 Finished: December 2nd 2021

'Dysfunctional: not operating normally or properly' That was one way to describe Clara Campbells family. Dysfunctional; not operating properly. That was just what happened when your older siblings leave you. Or that's what Clara had always believed. She had never had any parents there to hold her hand or any older siblings to tease her; they had grown up before her. She knew how to cook, clean, walk around her parents emotions, go to and from school; she know how to take what life gave her. Well, what was the other opportunity that she could of had? But what happens when her ship gets rocked and thrown off course? When people you thought left you years ago decide to show up again? Clara has always known one way to live, and that gets ruined, so how is she supposed to cope with the change? She has taught herself everything else in life, so this can't be any different, can it? "There is no book about independence and there is no book about dependence. You have to write it yourself; you have to be the one that lives through it" Clara was that girl in class, when she was asked about relatives or family members, she always said she had none. Everyone believed her because she never had anyone there, not like it mattered to her or any of them. "It was you had lost someone, or that was what I thought about whenever someone asked about my siblings and the rest of my family. I didn't know who they were, and they didn't know who I was. I mean, I didn't know me either" Clara grew up without them as they grew up without her, so what will they do when a wave rocks the worlds they live in? "I heard her screams, Colt, I heard them. You weren't the one to hear the screaming and crying of your baby sister, it was me, and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it. I couldn't save her" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Started: 9.03.22 Finished: -