Between Hope and Heartbreak
2022
Ali Eliza
She was a small-town girl, living in a… wait that’s already taken. Olivia Hart was a girl from a small town, but she yearned for something more… that’s better. She made a promise to herself that once she saved enough money, she would start her dream life in New York City. She didn’t have anything holding her back (other than her best friend Emma, but we’ll get to that later), and she was ready for a fresh start.
Fast-forward to half a year after her college graduation, Olivia is settling into her new life in… you guessed it… New York City. She found a perfect apartment, a perfect job, and a seemingly perfect guy. Everything was falling right into place… but that’s always the moment everything turns to shit, right? Right. Her perfect world comes crashing down when Knox moves into the apartment across the hall. He’s everything Olivia hates. He’s arrogant, covered in tattoos, and a biker. Not only that, but he has a talent for embarrassing her.
Doesn’t sound too bad if all she has to worry about is Knox, right? Wrong. Soon after Olivia meets Knox, she hears knocking at her door in the middle of the night. Not sure what to expect, she opens the door and sees her best friend, Emma standing there (see, I told you we’d get to that part). To put it frank, Emma looks terrible. Her eyes are red from hours of crying, her face is bruised, and she has a gash on her neck that is still dripping blood. What. The. Hell.
Olivia offers Emma a safe place to stay, dying to know what or who caused her injuries. Emma’s past is eating her alive, and she won’t tell a soul what happened to her… that is, until James, a firefighter with a savior complex, sweeps into her life. Will Emma’s haunting past come back with a vengeance, burning Olivia and their new life together to the ground? Or will Emma finally be able to free herself from the demons of her past and move on?
TW: abusive relationship, anxiety, violence, sexual content