What he took from me

What He Took From Me is a new adult / young adult contemporary romance with strong elements of family drama and a thriller/crime-romance undertone. Set against a backdrop of the criminal underworld, the story explores domestic violence, emotional trauma, and the struggle for safety and autonomy.
The central themes include domestic abuse and its consequences, escape and the search for safety, first love, trust, friendship loyalty, and the collision between two very different worlds. The tone is emotionally intense, at times dark, appealing to readers of romance with a strong narrative drive, especially fans of "bad boy with a past" stories and survival-through-trauma arcs.
Ella is a teenager trapped in an abusive home, counting the days until she turns eighteen and can finally escape a life where affection has long been replaced by fear, and apologies are worth no more than the money left on the kitchen table. Her only constant is her best friend Viola, who helps her hold on to the idea of a normal life.
Everything changes when she meets Paul, a smart, funny, and persistent boy who disrupts her carefully controlled world. What she does not know is that Paul is actually Igor - a former enforcer in the criminal underworld - trying to distance himself from his past. Despite his promise to leave that life behind, he knows that love alone is not enough to erase who he used to be.
As Ella is pulled closer to him, she is forced to confront the reality that the danger she is trying to escape may not be as far away as she believes. The greatest threat may still lie within the place that is supposed to be safe.
What He Took From Me is an emotional story about a girl who has learned to disappear in order to survive, and a boy trying to become someone new before his past destroys everything he cares about. It is a romance grounded in real emotional trauma, where the stakes are not only love, but safety, agency, and the right to one's own life.