ars, while others are shaped by e

er known a world whe

to rearrange the furniture every few months just to make room for a new stack of bills. It had be

autiful, fantastical stories that kept the

cking a loose strand of Elena's dark hair behind her ear. "

d believed that one day, everything would make sense. That the struggle

had a way of e

ors had called it a "freak accident," an illness that no one could explain, but it had ripped her family apart, piece by piece. Her mother's condi

ber evening when the world outside was buried in sn

ne that had once held the strength of the world. Elena had always been her mot

red weakly, her voice hoarse and frail.

lipping down her face. "Don't say

couldn't give you the chance to be something more. Promise me somet

. Working late shifts at the diner, skipping meals just to buy books for her younger brother

medical loans, the charity events. But none of it had worked. His condition

promising to solve all of it in exchange for E

he'd made to her mother. She could walk into the life her mother ha

, even cold. But desperation had

with a man who would never be hers - playing a role for t

st nights. The nights when they had nothing but each other. And now, even with all

t buy back wh

other. She could surv

t work, she promised herself, straighte

, Elena Carter stepped into a future she never asked for, but one she wo