Before You Knew Me

*Some people return into your life quietly. Others return by ruining your peace.*

Seraphina Arden never expected to meet her childhood rival again.

Especially not after accidentally calling him a restroom criminal.

Lucien Vale was once the quiet boy she constantly argued with in school - the one who never smiled enough, never spoke enough, and somehow still managed to annoy her without trying.

Years later, he was no longer that boy.

Now he was a man carrying responsibilities too heavy for one person, grief hidden behind cold eyes, and a little hand holding onto his that he refused to let go of.

He was distant.

She was chaos.

He preferred silence.

She filled every silence he had.

And somewhere between arguments, lingering glances, stolen moments, and feelings they were never supposed to have...

They begin to realize that sometimes love doesn't start with perfect timing.

Sometimes-

it begins *before you even know it.*