Chapter 1: The Beginning of Darkness

They were just kids when it all began.
Back when summer afternoons felt endless, laughter echoed louder, and love was something innocent, fragile, and unspoken, when a single glance across the schoolyard felt like forever.

Chris Sinclair never believed in happy endings. Not when his world at home was built on slammed doors, whispered fights, and the quiet ache of being unseen. But then came Mason Taylor, his best friend since first grade, the boy who became his anchor when everything else was falling apart.

And with Mason came Yasmin.
His twin. His sunlight.
The girl who made the darkness bearable without even knowing it.

Through childhood, through growing pains, through years of unspoken feelings, Chris held on to the pieces of her, the stolen smiles, the quiet moments, the memories that shaped them. To him, Yasmin was forever.

But forever is fragile.

And when one mistake threatens to unravel everything, Yasmin, Mason, Sophie, the friendships that built their world, Chris is forced to face the truth:
Sometimes, all it takes is a single crack for forever to fall apart.

Now, he must decide if he's willing to fight for the one person who's always been his light...
Or watch as the pieces of what they once had scatter beyond repair.

Because when love breaks, it doesn't disappear.
It lingers, in the fragments.