After an incident three months ago and her parent's divorce, Reina Caverly finds a way to cope: cutting herself. Her mother's a workaholic, her sister is an out of control teenage girl, and her dad disappeared from the face of the planet. She can't even tell her two best friends, Joshua and Megan, about her problems. Then she meets young and mysterious Calvin Young about to commit suicide by jumping from her school's rooftop which surprised Reina. He's rich; he's handsome for his age, and does well at school, so why? Why would someone who has everything want to kill himself? Everyone has a dark secret, even Calvin who seems to have the world. Can Reina and Calvin learn to speak up about their issues? Can they find their reasons to live? ______ "One day you'll leave me. You don't want a girl with a rape story," I said as I desperately tried to stop my sobs and hiccups. "You deserve someone who is prettier and more stable then me." "Mon ange ," he whispered to me lightly as he held my tear-stained face. I looked at him and my breath shortened as I met his intense look. "I don't want anyone else," he said, "because I just want you." ______ WARNING: Story contains rape, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.

"When I tell you that he hates me, you'll probably assume it's because he's a jerk...but you'd be wrong. He's not a jerk. I am." --- Several years ago tragedy struck Emma's home, leaving her broken... like a cup with cracks spiraling and slithering around the edges. Slowly, bitterness crept in like tar, hardening between each fracture to resemble a deceitful wholeness. She became a monster, and targeted her venom on the sweetest person she could find: Trinity Nixon. Too bad the boy Emma longed for was Trinity's brother. Now, as Emma fights to win the heart of the boy who despises her, she's forced to hide her demons. She paints her fragile cup in pinks, yellows, and oranges - all the colors of the sun. She paints on a smile, and an unusual sense of humor, so that the world will view her as bright and cheerful, when in reality she's breaking. But she's completely unprepared for the acidic truth that melts away the tar, demolishing her shell, and awakening the Emma White buried deep inside. --- Book 1 in The Dismantled Pride series *Story was previously titled "Faking It"