I was born with the fire of defiance burning in my veins.

He was raised in the shadows of a name soaked in blood.

I’ve spent my life trying to outrun the suffocating grip of the Vescari name, a legacy soaked in secrets, silence, and the threat of violence. Dance consumes my days, where each fluid movement is my escape and my rebellion against the past. My nights are shadowed by memories that weigh heavier than any step I’ve ever taken. I’ve built a life far from the shadows of my past, far from the family that once suffocated me. But then, like a storm I never saw coming, Jake Moretti reappears in my world.

The boy next door, the one I never could forget, even when I tried. Now, a man hardened by exile and a legacy he never asked for, Jake is the heir to a dangerous empire—a fate he’s spent years trying to escape, just like I have.

But secrets have a way of resurfacing, and when danger claws its way into my world, the truth about Jake’s past—and mine—forces us to confront wounds we’ve buried, along with a passion we never saw coming. Forced together, we must decide if love can survive the weight of loyalty, blood, and betrayal.

In a city that never sleeps, where secrets whisper and history bleeds through every cracked sidewalk, Jake and I must fight—not just to survive, but to build something worth fighting for, each other.

Because sometimes, the heart remembers what the world—our past, our families—wants us to forget.