River Dawson was trouble from the start.
The kind of boy with bruised knuckles, dirty-blond hair, and a reputation that made parents lock their doors at night. Everyone in Crystal Bay swore he'd end up just like his father-violent, reckless, and destined for prison.
But they didn't know the River I knew.
The boy who sat beside me when nightmares wouldn't let me sleep.
The one who fought anyone who made me cry.
The one who became my home long before I understood what love was.
After my parents were murdered, Frankie Carson took me in alongside River and Landon. Somewhere between bonfires, stolen secrets, and growing up too fast, River stopped being the boy I fought with...
...and became the boy I couldn't survive without.
But love doesn't always save people.
Sometimes it ruins them.
Now years later, I'm drowning in addiction, haunted by the wreckage of who I used to be. And River-the boy who once promised he'd run away with me-is no longer the same person either.
Some loves heal you.
Some loves destroy you.
Ours did both.