WE WERE NEVER STRANGERS

Iris Cain changed her name and moved to a new place, a new job, a new country, a decade ago, after she had pulled the trigger. Until Rowan entered her classroom, she believed that she had gotten a second chance at life, and the bloodstains of her past were left behind.

Rowan is not just being a rebellious teenager; she brings eyes that Iris has witnessed before. The eyes of the ghosts that she believed to have abandoned. Nobody says that it is not, but they both know: this encounter was not an accident.

When secrets start unwrapping and lies have been choking between them, Iris starts doubting everything -not only her previous orders but also her so-called justice and the innocence she once had stolen. A man haunted by nightmares and half-truths, Rowan seeks answers with a quiet rage that is caused by having lost too much.

At a time when identities are lethal, and to be silent is to be killed, their narratives explode in a war of incendiary retribution. The point is that they have never been strangers.

By blood, by bullet, and by the past that cannot stay put, they were connected.