Chapter 1

Eight years ago, the air in Oceanville was thick with summer heat and the promise of graduation, Ava Rodriguez was seventeen, and her world revolved around Jackson "Jax" Carter.

He was older, wilder, from a family whose money whispered through the town's oldest trees.

Ava's mother was a school board member then, a woman of strict principles, influential.

That influence became a curse when Valerie Nash, Jax' s first love, died.

Valerie was a troubled girl, and a wave of cyberbullying, a public shaming, had pushed her into despair, into an overdose.

People whispered Ava's mother hadn't handled it right, hadn't protected Valerie, had perhaps made it worse with her rigid stance on student discipline.

Jax didn't whisper, he roared, his grief twisting into a burning need for revenge against Ava's family.

One night, fueled by alcohol and rage, Jax targeted Ava's father' s small business, a local garage, intending to vandalize it, to make a statement.

Ava' s younger brother, Miguel, only ten, was there unexpectedly, helping their dad late.

A confrontation escalated, a panicked driver, a piece of heavy equipment Jax had tampered with – the details blurred into a single, sickening crash.

Miguel was pulled from the wreckage, his spine severed. Paralyzed.

The doctors said he' d never walk again, would need constant care for the rest of his life.

In the chaotic aftermath, with Ava' s family reeling, Jax delivered his final, cruel blow.

He found Ava, her eyes hollow with shock and fear for Miguel, and told her parents about the baby, their baby, growing inside her.

He sneered, calling it a consequence, then pressed a wad of cash into her hand, "For your troubles," he' d said, his voice dripping with derision.

Then Jax Carter vanished from Oceanville, leaving behind a shattered family.

Ava' s mother lost her position on the school board, the scandal and Miguel' s tragedy too much for the town to ignore.

Their comfortable life crumbled, replaced by the relentless weight of medical bills and a future stolen.

Ava kept the baby, her son Mateo, and the cash Jax left, she burned it, watching the green turn to ash, a small, futile act of defiance against the ruin he' d brought.