afterlight

Some people spend their whole lives trying to make a name for themselves.

Avery Carter spent hers trying to escape one.

As the daughter of a Hall of Fame quarterback and the twin sister of one of the NFL's biggest stars, she's spent twenty-four years being introduced by someone else's accomplishments. So when she started making music, she did it under a different name, determined to find out if her songs could stand on their own.

By day, she's a pediatric occupational therapist helping children find confidence in themselves.

By night, she's Ava Simone, an up-and-coming pop artist playing shows across Chicago. Outside of the people she trusts most, no one knows the two women are the same.

Especially not Micah Hendrix.

As the NFL's newest franchise quarterback, Micah arrives in Chicago for offseason training carrying the weight of an entire city on his shoulders. The last thing he expects is to become obsessed with a local singer whose music feels like it was written just for him... or to meet Marcus Carter's effortlessly down to earth daughter and find himself falling for her, too.

He has no idea they're the same woman.

But when one song catapults Ava Simone from hidden gem to overnight sensation, the carefully separated worlds Avery has spent years protecting begin to collide. Suddenly, the life she built in secret is impossible to hide, and the man who's unknowingly fallen for every version of her will have to decide if love can survive the truth.

Because sometimes the hardest person to be known by is yourself.