"No, Ryker, I can't," I spoke softly, looking down at the ground so he couldn't see the tears welling up in my eyes. "Why?" He pressed. His hand slid down along my jaw softly, before pulling my head up to face him. "What are you so afraid of?" A single tear escaped, gliding down my cheek. "I'm afraid of losing everything I have. I can't go through that again." Aurelia Hayes was a spoiled girl. Her parents loved her, she was beautiful, and anyone who met her she had wrapped around her finger. Until the car accident occurred when she was just ten years old, causing her to lose the only things she had: her parents. After six years of being sent to multiple different foster homes and having been temporarily adopted by three different families, her primary care nurse received the news that Gary and Veronica Mason, her parents' old best friends, had finally been financially stable enough to take Aurelia under their wing and adopt her for good. The news, although wonderful, didn't seem to phase Aurelia at first. She was far from happy. She never saw herself feeling that emotion again. But she could feel content. And that's what Mr. and Mrs. Mason strived to make her. Aurelia met her old best friend, Ryker Mason, when they adopted her. He had grown up extremely well, and Ryker did everything he could to see Aurelia happy again. But what if Aurelia is just too broken to ever love again? Copyright © 2019. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.