Valentine’s Day was supposed to be simple: dinner, maybe dessert, and nothing else. But I left that restaurant thinking my life had just shattered—and I had no idea the night was about to get even stranger. My name is Briar. I’m 28. I’m deep into an EMT course, the kind that doesn’t just test your skills—it tests your heart, your focus, and your stamina. This is the first thing I’ve wanted this badly since I was a kid. I had quit my job because my boyfriend, Jace, insisted. “Briar, you’re

Eight days after my mother died, my father married her sister. People clinked champagne glasses. Cameras flashed. Smiles were stretched tight across faces that didn’t know where to look. While guests laughed and congratulated each other in our backyard, I was crouched behind the shed, listening to a truth that cracked my life straight down the middle. It started with one whispered sentence. It ended with a secret they never thought I’d uncover. You think there’s a rock bottom. You think it’s the knock at the door—the sound that doesn’t