The Care

By Reign Pańes

Iya lives a double life: a compassionate caregiver by day and a paid emotional companion by night.

Iya is the steady presence everyone including her clients depend on - soft-spoken, perceptive, and skilled at easing the loneliness of people who have been forgotten. She absorbs their grief and confusion, holding others together even as it takes an emotional toll..

But after hours, she steps into a world no one at the facility could imagine. Through a discreet intermediary, Iya offers a different kind of care to women who pay not for romance, but for comfort -the rare feeling of being truly seen. The work feels controlled. Boundaried. Safe.

Until Leah.

What begins as a simple session with a quiet, yearning woman slips into something charged and dangerous. Leah asks for more time, more closeness, more of Iya than she can safely give. The emotional hunger in their encounters begins to blur lines Iya swore she would never cross as the two lives she kept so separate begin to collide . A housemate notices too much. A vulnerable client leans too heavily. And Iya faces the truth she has tried to outrun:

Caring for everyone comes at a cost.

As Leah's quiet obsession deepens, Iya must choose between protecting her secrets and preserving herself.

In a life built on giving care, she's finally forced to confront the question she has avoided all along:

If she continues to hold everyone else together... who will hold her?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GG19F8DM
• ISBN13: 9798993737416
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Collective of Care
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"