The best lies are the ones you never let them see. The best disguise is the person you never let them meet. Brayln Varadi may be only seventeen, but he knows these truths as well as he knows how quickly people turn on you once they see who you really are. Fresh out of juvie and living on the streets is how Ryan Navarro, a family court attorney, finds him. Ryan knows something about taking in kids who have no one left. His older brother, Gavin, once took in both Ryan and Levi, who became another brother to him. More recently, Levi opened his own home to his younger half brother, Grey. Now Ryan finds himself facing the same decision. The problem is, Ryan and his wife, Karlie, have no idea how much trouble they are inviting into their home-or how Brayln will affect everyone in Ryan's family, including Grey. Life is about to become much more complicated for Ryan and Levi when trouble arrives wrapped in a confident seventeen year old who refuses to let anyone see how vulnerable he really is.

Levi Tanner has a dilemma. He has a half brother he never knew existed, and now he's facing an impossible choice: step up and take him in after his mother is arrested and awaiting trial, or look the other way and keep his life simple. The thing is, Levi has never had a simple life. He knows what it feels like to be removed from a home after a parent is arrested. He knows what it means to feel helpless, homeless, and lost. But at sixteen, Levi found a home with Gavin and Nikki Navarro. Now, at twenty six, he's stepping into the same kind of role Gavin once stepped into for him. He's terrified he'll get it wrong, but Gavin is still by his side, and this sixteen year old kid needs Levi the way Levi once needed Gavin. Greyson Tanner is facing the hardest choice of all: testifying at his mother's trial. He isn't ready to relive that stormy night, but he may not have a choice. His testimony could help set his mother free, but telling the truth could destroy her future. And Greyson isn't sure he can live with that guilt.

Sixteen-year-old Emmett Sidney has spent his life trapped in a cycle of abuse at the hands of his father, with no one left to protect him after his mother's death. His older brother, Emilio, promised to stay-but when he turned eighteen, he left without looking back. Now, Emmett is alone, hardened by years of fists and fear. When his dad dies were does he go? Across the country, Emilio Simmons has built a life he never thought possible-a loving wife, a daughter, and a stable home. But a late-night call from the police brings his past crashing back. His father is dead, and CPS is pressuring him to take in the younger brother he abandoned. Emilio can't forget the horrors of his childhood, but facing Emmett again means confronting the guilt and trauma he buried years ago. As Emmett and Emilio's paths cross again, they must both grapple with the wounds of their past and the choices that tore them apart. Can they rebuild what was broken, or are some scars too deep to heal?

"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: -