'After so many years of being in pain and despair, I've numb to it. However, it was so unbearable I can't explain it any other way. It just hurt, yet I walk on.' -Mud
In the small, abandoned town of Whitnom, a tale lurks. Full of creatures that no one knew existed, everyone is driven by either hatred, sadness, or numbness, no matter what form of pain it may be. However, there is one who wants to live again. She doesn't kill, steal, curse, nor lie. She just waits for the day when she can go home.
To home, wherever it may be.
Ivy Bright has always believed that a smile can fix anything - even when life keeps proving her wrong. Stuck in a cold mansion with a neglectful mother and a cruel stepfather, she scrubs floors and hides her pain behind a cheerful mask, convinced that kindness is the only thing she has left to give.
But everything changes when five strangers arrive, their presence dark and commanding. The Vitalo brothers - Massimo, Declan, Zayn, Jaxon, and Vale - have come to reclaim what's rightfully theirs. They expected to find their father living off their late mother's fortune. What they didn't expect was Ivy.
She's not their blood, yet something about her stirs a long-buried instinct to protect. Hardened by loss and betrayal, the brothers have forgotten what softness feels like... until they see the girl with the unbreakable smile.
They came for vengeance.
They met her.
But can Ivy's light survive their darkness? Or will the shadows that cling to the Vitalo brothers consume her, too?