TheHyperWriter84
When seventeen-year-old Ava Hale collapses at school again, her dad finally admits he can't afford the private tests she needs. His solution?
Send her to her mum's wealthy new family - a mansion filled with money, rules, and a stepson who already hates her.
Liam Rothwell has seen it all: gold-diggers, fake illnesses, women pretending to be fragile for attention.
So when he finds Ava's medical papers and hidden salt packets, he's convinced he knows the game she's playing.
"You're not scamming my dad.
If you feel faint, you come to me - not them."
He thinks he's controlling a liar.
He doesn't realise he's protecting a sick girl who's trying desperately not to be a burden.
As Ava's PoTS symptoms spiral - the racing heart, the collapsing spells, the dizzy mornings - Liam becomes the only one who ever sees it happen. At first to stop her "act"... and then because he can't stand the thought of her falling without him.
Secrets turn into late-night warnings, quiet care, whispered arguments, and a kind of protection Ava shouldn't enjoy as much as she does.
And somewhere between the lies he thought she told and the truth she was too scared to speak...
But when the truth finally comes out, will it break them - or prove he was always the one meant to catch her?