xoddenae
Arabella Valencourt has mastered the art of being adored without ever truly being known. To the world, she is warmth and beauty, generosity and light. Inside, she carries anxiety she rarely names and a fear that needing too much will make her unlovable. She gives freely, loves deeply, and hides the parts of herself she believes might dim the room.
Soren Everheart has already learned what love can cost. Marked by a loss he keeps carefully contained, he lives with quiet discipline, choosing control over vulnerability, steadiness over risk. He never expected Arabella-never expected the way she makes him want to soften, to hope, to believe in something more again.
What forms between them is not instant or explosive, but undeniable. It grows in small moments: in the way Soren notices when Arabella's smile falters, in the way she makes space for his silence without demanding explanations. Together, they learn that love does not require perfection, only honesty. That strength can exist alongside fear. And that being truly seen-past the image, past the past-is the bravest choice of all.