Fragments Beneath The Shell

Aurelia Vlach has always felt like a contradiction-like the calm of the ocean and the storm that follows. Living with bipolar disorder, she's trapped in a cycle of highs and lows that no one seems to understand. At school, she's a target for bullies who don't see beyond her outbursts. At home, she's stuck between her exhausted mother, a father who betrayed her family, and Maya-the stepmother who wears cruelty like perfume.

The only constant in her life is her little brother, Theo, who was born with spina bifida. He sees her in a way no one else does, but even his love isn't enough to quiet the chaos inside her. And then, there's Evan-the child her father had with Maya. A living reminder of everything that was stolen from her.

As Aurelia fights to hold herself together, she finds solace in the one thing that's ever made sense-turtles. Creatures that carry their homes on their backs, that withdraw into their shells when the world is too much. She wants to be like them, to build a shell thick enough to keep everything out.

But when a new friendship begins to bloom into something more, Aurelia is forced to confront the truth: no shell is unbreakable, and some people might just be worth letting in.

A raw, emotional journey of love, loss, and self-discovery, Fragments Beneath the Shell is a story about finding strength in the broken pieces-and learning that even the most shattered hearts can be pieced back together.