After years of war, blood, and silence, Dayvon Bennett comes home to Chicago for one reason: his daughter, Demi. But when a forgotten school pickup leads him straight to Dakota Williams, his first love and the only woman who knows what happened in those woods five years ago, everything he buried starts breathing again. Dakota is married now, softer, and trying to live clean, but Von still remembers every secret, every lie, and every touch. Between fatherhood, old wounds, and a body nobody ever found, love becomes the most dangerous thing they ever kept.

"𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙜𝙤 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙈𝙚𝙠𝙖𝙞 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙩 - 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙢."

Every time Dayvon looked at Salem , he was reminded that there was still a small piece of good left inside him. He met her on one of the worst days of his life, fresh out of jail and carrying more anger than he knew what to do with. While everybody else saw a criminal headed nowhere fast, Salem saw a man with busted knuckles who needed help. He'd never understood how an autistic doctor could be so oblivious to who he was. She never feared him. Never judged him. Never treated him any differently than anybody else. One hug from her felt like peace after years of chaos, and somewhere along the way he found himself depending on her more than he should've. That's why he yearned for her the way he did; why he couldn't stay away no matter how hard he tried.She stole his Antidote.

𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐨. 𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞. *this is my first book, please don't stress ya selves out bc I did while writing it! 😭

𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐈 𝐝𝐨? 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞, 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲. 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

"See I'm a killer, but I got feelings. I catch you with him, I just might kill him." - Von. "Fuckin' on someone else and textin' like you want me, disrespectful." - Kentrell. *very old & cringy don't read omg*

Love is the one memory that one could never, ever, forget; because even if one has lost its mind, the feeling of love will always remains in the heart; curing every emotion to ever be felt. The antidote to it all.

There's a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.

Sometimes life gets weird. You lose hope, then you'll fall down, but then you'll get back up again. Sage did. So hang in there; it gets better, with time. A short story.

"I'll play you." Kross challenged with a serious expression on his face, smoothly twirling the basketball on his pointer finger. "For what?" Amiko sighed heavily, a bored look on her face, crossing her arms over her chest, tapping her foot repeatedly on the ground. "𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭."