Chapter 1

Ava Harrison scrolled through her phone, her stomach tight.

The comments were brutal.

"Gold digger."

"Thief's fiancée."

"Cancel Ava Harrison."

Her once-sparkling Austin influencer career was dimming fast.

Julian Vance, her fiancé, and his "business ventures" were the reason.

Whispers of shady deals turned into loud accusations online.

Money was suddenly a problem.

She had to fix this PR mess, fast.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Nashville, Ethan Miller poured his pain into his guitar.

Small, smoky bars were his new home.

Austin, and the heartbreak he fled, felt like another lifetime.

His new songs were raw, bleeding emotion.

Chloe, his older sister, an ER nurse back in Austin, called often.

"Are you eating, Ethan? Are you okay?"

He always said yes, even when it wasn't true.

Maya Chen, a young music producer, saw something in his sadness.

They worked late, shaping his songs.

"This is good, Ethan. Really good," Maya would say, her eyes bright.

A clip of Ethan singing a particularly haunting song gained a little traction online.

Ava saw it.

A flicker of an idea. A collaboration? A way to look sensitive, artistic?

She sent a message.

"Ethan, it's Ava. Long time. Love your sound. We should connect."

Ethan saw her name pop up.

His finger hovered over the message.

Then he deleted it without opening.

He would not go back there.

He told Maya, "Got a message from someone from my past."

"Good or bad past?" Maya asked, not looking up from the mixing board.

"The kind you burn bridges with," Ethan said.

He picked up his guitar.

He had a new verse to write.

A verse about leaving ghosts behind.

He thought about Ava for a moment, the girl he once worshipped.

The girl who broke him.

He pushed the thought away.

She was just a name on a screen now, easily erased.

He had to keep moving forward.

That was the only way to survive.

His fingers found the chords, and the music started again.

The past was a closed chapter, or so he hoped.