Living in a town where you're known yet unknown is perilous. And I revel in peril. Those are my favorite games to play. I carry many regrets, but the choices I've made thus far? I wish to carry them with me into the afterlife.

We live in a world where sin lurks on every corner, tainting every road with its presence, and where no transgression goes unpunished. For Rodrick, life has always been lived under the scrutiny move dictated by his father's unyielding rules. But now, sinister Rodrick had taken matters into his own hands, delivering his own brand of justice by taking the lives those he deemed unrighteous. The life he had tried to escape, the one shrouded in darkness and control, was slowly seeping into his newfound existence, threatening to consume it entirely.

Marie was born on the losing side of life. In Mississippi, where the air was thick with heat and judgment, she learned early that some people got second chances-girls like her didn't. She grew up with dust on her shoes, hunger in her belly, and a last name that carried more weight than she ever could. Her father's reputation bled into hers before she even knew what it meant, and her mother's demons left scars she couldn't see but always felt. By the time she was old enough to fight back, it was already too late. The streets had their grip on her, whispering promises that felt like freedom but always came with a price. She told herself she wouldn't become them-her mother, her father, the ghosts that haunted her nights. But the world didn't care what she wanted. It pushed her, pulled her, until the choices in front of her weren't choices at all. And when the time came to cross the line, Marie didn't hesitate. She stepped forward, knowing there was no going back.

In the heart of the city, where the air was thick with the smell of street food, smoke, and survival, there was a rhythm a beat you could hear in the way the traffic hummed and in the way sneakers hit the pavement. This was the Southside, a place that raised you tough, whether you wanted it or not. The projects loomed overhead like watchful giants, their walls covered in graffiti telling stories of the ones who made it out and the ones who never did. Amid the chaos, there was beauty, like a rose growing between cracks in the sidewalk. And that rose was Nevaeh. Her name meant heaven, though her life was anything but. With caramel skin, braids that flowed down her back like a crown, and eyes that seemed to hold a million stories, Nevaeh moved through the block like a queen. She had dreams bigger than the city, but her feet were firmly planted in the dirt. Then there was Deon. He was everything the streets warned you about but everything a girl like Nevaeh was drawn to. Tall, with a rough edge that came from dodging trouble since he could walk, Deon was the type who stayed two steps ahead, always playing the game but never playing by the rules. He had the streets in his blood and his heart guarded like Fort Knox until the day he saw her. Their worlds collided on a summer evening when the sky was a deep purple, and the only stars were the streetlights flickering above. It wasn't supposed to happen love between two people like them. But the streets don't care about what's supposed to be. All they knew was that love in the ghetto was dangerous, but for Nevaeh and Deon, it was the only kind worth fighting for.