Scarlet Vega has spent the last decade in survival mode. By day, she's a straight-A college student juggling online classes in psychology and literature. By night, she becomes Jezebel-the confident, untouchable stage persona she dons to pay the bills as an exotic dancer. In between, she raises her sharp-tongued, musically gifted teenage sister, Kitty, who still believes Scarlet bartends part-time and that their scraped-together world is held up by luck, not sacrifice. Ever since their parents died, Scarlet has been everything-sister, mother, provider, protector. Their lives are built on fragile scaffolding: chore charts taped to cracked cabinets, rent paid in cash, mascara-stained towels doubling as potholders. But Scarlet's careful balancing act begins to unravel when Kitty starts asking bigger questions, pushing boundaries, and chasing her dreams of a future Scarlet never let herself imagine. Then there's Dante Moretti-a dangerous man from the criminal underworld who's been circling Scarlet's world longer than she's ready to admit. When he steps in one rainy night after a grocery store breakdown, it sets off a slow-burn collision between her two selves: Scarlet, who wants peace and safety, and Jezebel, who knows how to survive in the dark. As Scarlet's lies grow heavier and Kitty inches closer to discovering the truth, the walls Scarlet's built around her heart-and their lives-start to crack. But it's not until a fatal shooting outside the club threatens everything she's worked for that Scarlet stops surviving and starts becoming something else entirely. Because grief changes people. And love doesn't always save you.