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.

People have spent years turning Zakai into some kind of monster. Scarred by a tragic apartment fire that took place when he was only eleven years old, Zakai has lived most of his life hiding from the world. With rumors surrounding his name and judgment following him everywhere he goes, isolation became safer than being seen. Meanwhile, Kinsley never expected a simple errand job to lead her to him. What starts as grocery store runs and brief interactions slowly becomes something neither of them saw coming. Because beneath Zakai's cold and distant exterior is a man struggling with years of guilt, grief, and loneliness. And the closer Kinsley gets, the harder it becomes to walk away. Some scars never fade, people just teach you how to live with them.

𝗜 𝗔𝗜𝗡'𝗧 𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗧𝗢 𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘: ❝ 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙢𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙞𝙣'𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡, 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙜𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙞'𝙢 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡, 𝙜𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙞'𝙢 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪... ❞ 𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗜'𝗠𝗔 𝗔𝗟𝗪𝗔𝗬𝗦 𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗬𝗢𝗨: ❝ 𝙞 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙮𝙤' 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙥 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚, 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙙 𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙞 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚, 𝙜𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙥, 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣' 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙮, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙞𝙣'𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙞𝙣' ... ❞ 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐃 © 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐄. (not edited)

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.

[EDITING] xolani and two have been each other's person since they were kids running around third ward and trading inside jokes nobody else got. over a decade of history between them: sleepovers, middle of the night phone calls, the kind of comfort within each other that made everything else feel like silly noise. they know each other in that deep, embarrassing way: each other's nervous habits, the laughs that don't come out right, the silences that don't need filling. it was never supposed to be more than that. but somewhere between growing up and growing into themselves, the lines started blurring. xo starts noticing things she has no business noticing; the way he looks at her when she's not paying attention, the way his hand always finds her without thinking, but she buries it. they've got something too good to gamble with, and she knows it. what she doesn't know is that two's been fighting the same feelings too. longer than she has, way quieter than she'd ever expect from him. he's been loving her in the margins for years. carefully, willfully, without ever letting it show. until one night it just... slips out. i've loved you in quiet ways for so long... i'on know how to be anything else when you around, xo. and now it's out there. sitting between them, too big to ignore and too damn real to take back. they've survived everything together: loss, distance, the messy in between years of figuring out who they were as they grew up. but this? this is the one thing that could actually change everything. the question isn't whether they love each other-they're both well aware of the answer to that. whether they're brave enough to stop pretending they don't, though, is up to nobody but them.

Kyzion knew that life wasn't about becoming someone better, but about finally allowing himself to accept who he'd always been. The only person he could thank for his 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭, was Nalani.

One night. One room. Everything changed.

Siri, play You Da One by Rihanna... Something about him feels like a warning- and a promise. A Chicago Love Story

"𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥..." Poet was used to being the second choice. Actually, she was used to not being chosen at all. The girl blended into the background easily, it had always been that way. Sometimes, passion wasn't enough to put you in the spotlight and she was okay with that. Riot had always carried the weight of his mother's ways on his shoulders. He was the oldest son. The protector. The rock. He never would have thought these things to push him closer than ever to his soulmate. Not when he wasn't even sure what he wanted his own love story to look like. Their love was never expected to be but maybe it was supposed to happen that way. 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝟏 𝐎𝐅 '𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄' 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒