tracycollins2890
Two families, Tied together by business, trust, and something close to loyalty until everything fell apart.
She grew up around that world without ever truly belonging to it. Her father was respected, careful, and calculated, but he still stepped into a partnership that would cost him everything. What happened that night was never fully explained to her. All she knows is that she lost her father, her brother, and any sense of home she once had. And she knows exactly which family to blame.
So she left.
Now, in Boston, her life is quieter, more ordinary, exactly the way she wants it. She studies, she goes out with her friends, and she avoids anything that reminds her of the past. As far as she's concerned, that chapter of her life is over.
Until it isn't.
Because he's still very much a part of it.
He grew up in a world she chose to walk away from, A world built on power, control, and decisions that can't be undone. Unlike her, he never tried to escape it. And unlike her, he never forgot.
Not the past. Not what happened between their families.
And not her.
When they cross paths again, it doesn't feel dramatic or sudden. It's quieter than that. A look, a moment, something she doesn't want to read into. She tells herself she feels nothing for him except resentment. That whatever connection they once had disappeared a long time ago.
But some things don't disappear so easily.
As their lives begin to overlap again, the past slowly starts to feel closer than she's comfortable with. Questions she never asked begin to matter. Details she ignored don't sit right anymore. And the version of him she remembers doesn't quite match the one standing in front of her now.
He isn't asking for forgiveness. He isn't offering explanations. But he isn't letting her go either.
And somewhere between what she believes and what she's starting to see, the truth waits until unfinished, complicated, and impossible to avoid.