She was born into a house that demanded she become something sharp, silent, and unbreakable. Instead—she left. Now living with Marlene McKinnon, she’s learning what it means to exist without fear, to soften without being weak, to choose a life that was never meant for her. But freedom isn’t simple when the past still lingers— in the way she holds herself too tightly, in the expectations she hasn’t fully escaped, in the name she can never completely outrun. And then there’s James Potter. Her brother’s best friend. The one person she shouldn’t want. The one person who doesn’t treat her like something inevitable. He challenges her. Sees her. Waits for her to choose—when no one else ever has. Caught between the life she was raised for and the one she’s starting to build, she finds herself in something far more dangerous than expectation: Choice. And loving him might mean losing everything she’s only just begun to claim as her own.