❝Who can ever know how fate works?❞ Azalea Romano looks like she has everything-perfect grades, quiet grace, a future already written in gold. But her life is a fragile illusion. Behind late-night shifts and library walls, she's counting down something she can't stop... and hiding a past that never really let her go. Ace Martini is exactly the kind of boy people warn you about. Bruised knuckles. Underground fights. A home that reeks of alcohol and danger. He doesn't believe in love. Only survival-and protecting his little sister from the man who could ruin them both. When their worlds collide, it isn't gentle. It's violent. Consuming. Unavoidable. Ace sees the emptiness in Azalea's eyes-the kind he knows too well. And Azalea finds something terrifyingly close to safety in a boy built for destruction. But some secrets don't stay buried. And some endings are already written. He's fighting to escape the life he was born into. She's fighting for the time she has left.