Aya's Ten Attempts To Vanish

Aya has always carried her world alone-quietly, obediently, invisibly.
Until the heartbreaks stacked too high.
Until Raz left her feeling unworthy.
Until her family's silence felt louder than screaming.
Until the weight of life finally pressed her under.

After nine interrupted attempts to disappear, Aya chooses her final one with precision: open water, midnight, three heavy stones in her backpack. No witnesses. No more mistakes.
Only peace.

But the water refuses her.
And so does the last man she ever expected to care.

Haze-her distant, perfectionist neighbor who never spared her more than a passing glance-appears out of the darkness and drags her from the water, furious and terrified. Aya begs him to let her go. Haze refuses.

What begins as an unwanted rescue becomes a collision of two damaged lives. He carries his own buried past; she carries her unread letters of goodbye. And somewhere between all the hurt and all the breaking, they start to pull each other back to the surface-slowly, painfully, imperfectly.

But saving someone isn't the same as loving them.
And loving someone isn't the same as staying.

Will Haze be the anchor Aya has never had?
Or another wave waiting to drown her all over again?

A story about the heaviness we hide, the ache of being forgotten, and the terrifying tenderness of being seen.
A romance carved out of survival-messy, real, and heartbreakingly human.