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Chapter Three — Broken Lines
When certain lines are crossed, there is no coming back. What do you do now?
Jenna was still floating in the fragile afterglow of stolen moments. She and Zack had settled into a rhythm that wasn’t quite defined but felt inevitable. Nights bled into mornings where he’d linger in her apartment, teasing her for how messy she left her brushes, stealing kisses that left her weak-kneed, and pretending not to care when she tried to push him out the door before sunrise.
It was reckless. Dangerous. But it was theirs.
For the first time in years, Jenna felt alive.
But peace never lasts when secrets are built on fault lines.
The fault line walked onto campus on a crisp Tuesday afternoon, all broad shoulders and familiar swagger. Ethan Kane — Jenna’s older brother, Zack’s childhood best friend, and the one person in the world who had made both of them promise years ago to stay away from each other.
Jenna hadn’t seen him in months, not since his last deployment overseas. She spotted him across the quad before he saw her, a rush of warmth flooding her chest. She’d missed him. He was the constant protector, the one who carried their fractured family on his back when no one else could.
