2026

Before he discovered my age, he uncovered my heart. Bruised and abused, and victim to a loveless household, I shimmered with new life the moment he found me drowning my sorrows in a lake beneath the stars. A chance encounter. An unspoken connection. I was smitten; he was curious. But, as everyone knew, fate could be decidedly cruel. He called me Halley, like the comet. I called him Reed. And my best friend? Well…she called him Dad. Older is a forbidden, slow\-burn, age\-gap romance standalone, ending in an HEA.

“You’ve haunted me, and I can’t be haunted anymore. I need to be clean.” Killers. Psychopaths. Pure evil. The media has many names for them. I used to call them my best friends. Tate Riley and Silas Watts had been my protectors for as long as I could remember. Then, we grew up, and something shifted—so slowly at first that I didn’t realize it was happening until it was too late. They tricked me. They used me. They ruined me. So, I left, and I didn’t look back. But not long after, tragedy struck. I found myself in their crosshairs again, and this time, they were hellbent on revenge. Somehow, I managed to escape with my life that night. The world believes I’m their accomplice when, in reality, I’m their final girl. And I know I won’t be able to run forever.