Princess-marigold
Cordelia "CJ" Thompson has always been the girl who holds everything together.
Smart, disciplined, and endlessly dependable, she balances academics, athletics, dance, and theater like it's second nature-always the voice of reason in her friend group, always the one people turn to when things fall apart. But behind the composure is someone quietly trying to survive her own past.
Years ago, CJ was manipulated by a trusted teacher who blurred every boundary she was too young to fully understand. What she thought was care turned into control, and by the time she saw the truth, it was already too late. The aftermath left her carrying shame, grief, and a silence she never learned how to break. Now, she's rebuilding herself piece by piece-trying to reclaim her body, her voice, and her sense of self without falling back into the version of her that only knew how to endure.
But healing isn't linear, and CJ's world is far from simple.
Between friendships that feel like home, emotions she can't quite name, and a boy-Anthony "Ant" Vaughn-who sees past every layer she hides behind, CJ is forced to confront what it means to be chosen when she's spent so long choosing everyone else first. He doesn't try to fix her. He just stays. And that changes everything.
Just when she thinks she's learning how to breathe again, a buried truth threatens to unravel her entire world: Spider White-the boy already tangled in her life-might actually be her half-brother.
Now CJ has to navigate love, loyalty, identity, and trauma all at once, while learning the hardest lesson of all:
Surviving was only the beginning. Becoming herself is the real fight.