After the ashes - (Lesbian romance)

The fire changed everything.

It stole Ivy Cross's two best friends. It shattered her world. And it left her carrying a guilt so heavy that three years later, she still can't breathe without feeling the weight of it pressing against her chest.

Since that night, Ivy has become a ghost of the girl she used to be.

Angry.

Guarded.

Impossible to know.

Every relationship ends before it can begin. Every outstretched hand is met with another wall. Because losing people once was enough.

She won't survive it twice.

When her father transfers her to Thornviel Academy, an elite boarding school hidden behind ancient stone walls and tangled ivy, everyone insists it's exactly what she needs.

A fresh start. New people. A chance to move on.

Ivy knows better.

Because grief doesn't care about new beginnings.

Then she meets Silva Hart.

Beautiful, confident, and infuriatingly perfect, Silva is everything Ivy despises. The golden girl of Thornviel. The house president everyone adores. The kind of person who seems to glide effortlessly through life while Ivy is barely surviving her own.

Their first conversation ends in an argument. The next one isn't much better.

Every glance feels like a challenge. Every encounter turns into a battle neither of them is willing to lose. Yet somehow, the harder Ivy tries to stay away from Silva, the more impossible it becomes to ignore her.

Because beneath the perfect reputation and effortless confidence lies someone who sees too much. Someone who notices the cracks. Someone who refuses to let Ivy hide behind them.

As old wounds begin to surface and the walls Ivy spent years building start to crumble, she finds herself facing a choice she never wanted to make.

Keep running from the memories that haunt her. Or trust someone enough to finally share the truth.

But letting someone in means giving them the power to hurt you. And for a girl who has already lost everything, that might be more frightening than the fire itself.