I was supposed to be attending a friend's birthday party, not used as bait to lure out the elusive Holden Hayes. Holden was the last thing I needed. My life was already spiraling, a slow-moving head-on collision that you couldn’t swerve to avoid. In hindsight, so was his. Neither of us was looking for a relationship, but that is precisely what we found. An instant, all-consuming, soul-deep connection that few people ever find.

The problem was we both had pasts, ghosts that threatened to choke out all the light, and that’s exactly what they did. The night we crashed, we didn’t just break. We shattered. They say pain either hurts or changes you, but what about when it’s twisted? His pain was a penance, and mine was a shield. Both were dark and laced in fear, but our fate was set.

Sometimes love stories aren’t beautiful. They’re haunted.