ECLIPSE || TOM RIDDLE

She met him before the world knew his name.

Before the whispers. Before the darkness. Before Tom Riddle became someone people were afraid to speak about.

To Asteria Valemont, he was simply the brilliant, complicated boy she kept finding in the library. The boy who remembered the smallest things. The boy she slowly came to trust, despite the parts of him she couldn't quite understand.

Asteria has always believed that people are defined by the choices they make-and that no one is beyond choosing differently.

Tom has never believed the same.

As their friendship becomes something neither of them knows how to name, Asteria finds herself falling for a boy who is quietly reaching for something far more dangerous than love. And the closer she gets to him, the more she begins to wonder whether knowing someone completely means knowing them at all.

She believes she can stay beside him without losing herself.

He believes that if someone truly cares, they will never leave.

And somewhere between love and loyalty, devotion and possession, they begin to discover that wanting someone to stay is not the same as knowing how to keep them.

Some loves are meant to last a lifetime.

Others leave a mark long after the person is gone.

Because before Tom Riddle became a legend, he was just a boy who met a girl who believed he could choose differently.