Caitlyn
DAD HAD ALWAYS told me to make myself a priority—to never let myself get tangled in darkness and complications so deep that I'd forget where I ended and they began.
But memories had a cruel way of dragging me backward. Back to the first day I stepped into that school. Back to the almost-accident. Back to the first time I saw Lucien. Back to the moment everything inside me shifted so quietly, I didn't even realize it until it was too late.
I'd tried—God, I'd tried—to become the old version of myself again. The girl I'd been before him. Before his voice, his stare, his chaos. But some people didn't just walk into your life. They carved themselves into it.
Lucien had carved himself into me so deeply that no matter how hard I tried, I could never go back to who I was before my eyes
