She Was Someone First

Long before she was old enough to understand the weight of responsibility, Imara Louise Fajardo Arteaga was already carrying a family that was falling apart.

While other children dreamed about their future, she was learning how to survive the present-putting everyone else before herself, sacrificing her own childhood, and growing up far too soon.

She blamed her parents for it.

She resented her father for the pain he brought into their home.

She hated her mother for allowing it to happen.

And little by little, she began to hate the family she was born into.

At fifteen, Imara made a choice she believed would save her-she walked away.

Years later, life brings her back to the place she once swore she'd never return to. But home is no longer just a place filled with painful memories. It holds long-buried secrets, unanswered questions, and a past her mother spent a lifetime trying to leave behind.

As old wounds are reopened and hidden truths begin to surface, Imara is forced to question everything she thought she knew-not only about the people who raised her, but about herself.

Because some stories don't begin with us.

Sometimes, they begin generations before.

And sometimes, the hardest thing isn't uncovering the truth-

It's deciding what to do with it.

A New Adult Novel by Mariya Autor | ©2026
She Was Someone First