I had grown up watching my parents hold hands after dinner, kiss each other goodbye every morning, laugh at private jokes. I wanted that kind of love. Quiet. Gentle. Real. And Noah didn’t fit into that picture.
But still... his name came up more often than I wanted. His presence was hard to ignore.
Until one day, something happened at school. Something that spread like wildfire. A rumor. A truth. We didn’t know which. But whatever it was, it nearly pushed one girl to the edge.
And from that day on... I couldn’t look at him the same. The mystery was gone. Replaced by something darker. Something real.
Noah was no longer just Raven’s brother.
He became the reason my chest tightened whenever someone said his name.
And yet, that Wednesday morning felt like any other.
Raven and I had agre
