Dr. Avery Quinn has spent her entire life chasing excellence-through med school, residency, and into a coveted position as one of the youngest neuro-oncologists in Boston. Her work is everything. It has to be. There's no room for mistakes, distractions, or feelings that could threaten the career she's built from the ground up. Then Elena Ward is assigned to her care. Sharp-tongued, unexpectedly vulnerable, and in the fight of her life, Elena is the one patient Avery can't seem to compartmentalize. She's too young. Too familiar. And far too good at getting under Avery's skin. As boundaries blur and lines are crossed, Avery finds herself torn between the job she's sacrificed everything for-and the first person who's ever made her wonder what else there could be. But in a world where reputation is everything, one wrong move could cost her everything: her license, her future, and the only connection that's ever felt real.

In Northvale, Vermont, appearances are everything-and silence is safer than truth. Riley swore she'd never go back. After Grace ghosted her the week she left, after the countless moments under the train bridge where Riley told her best friend, Grace, that she loved her, and Grace said nothing. She moved weeks later and never heard from Grace again. Northvale became a place Riley only carried in memory-a place that hurt. Years later, Riley is building a life far from it all in Chicago. But when something deep and unnamed pulls her back, she finds herself standing once again in the town that made her feel small. And standing face-to-face with Grace Whitmore's parents-who, with haunting familiarity, invite her to stay in Grace's house. The place where she practically grew up. Grace has spent the last seven years trying to forget. Forget how she froze. Forget how she let Riley leave. Forget who she really was before the expectations of her family, her church, and her town hardened into something unrecognizable. Riley's return threatens all of it. As the two women are forced to navigate a shared home, buried feelings resurface-and so do the forces that drove them apart. In a town that still watches their every move, Riley and Grace must decide what's more dangerous: pretending to be something they're not, or choosing each other and facing the consequences. ⸻ ⚠️THIS BOOK IS STILL IN THE MAKING AND MANY EDITS ARE TO COME⚠️