ADELINE
I never wanted a husband—
especially not him.
Angelo and I are a war disguised as a marriage:
he pushes, I push harder.
He dominates, I outsmart.
He touches me, and my body betrays every lie I ever told myself about hating him.
But everything fractures when the truth comes out—
the bruises, the scars, the infertility I’ve kept buried since sixteen.
Suddenly I’m not the only one drowning; he’s drowning with me.
And I don’t know how to handle the version of him who looks at me like I’m breakable…
and his to protect.
Then there’s Lorenzo—dangerous, tempted, obsessed—
a shadow waiting at my door, wanting all the things Angelo refuses to let me give away.
The deeper I’m dragged into their world—their clubs, their games, their violence—
the more I realize something terrifying:
I’m changing.
Growing.
Healing in ways I never thought I could.
I’m not the girl who breaks anymore.
I’m the woman who blooms—
even in the hands of a man I once swore I’d destroy.
ANGELO
I’ve controlled everything my entire life.
Until her.
Adeline fights me with fire in her veins, every look a challenge, every word a weapon.
She drives me insane—
with her defiance, her recklessness, the way she walks into danger like she was born for it.
But then she crumbles.
Her past resurfaces.
The truth about her body, her father, her fear—
it hits me harder than any bullet ever could.
And for the first time, protecting her isn’t duty.
It’s instinct.
It’s need.
It’s something that feels frighteningly close to devotion.
Lorenzo wants her.
The city wants her blood.
My own family wants her gone.
But I don’t care.
She’s mine—
not as a possession, but as the only person who’s ever made me want a life outside of violence.
She thinks she’s blooming because she’s healing.
But what she doesn’t see—
is that she’s making me bloom too,
in all the places I thought were dead long before she ever walked into my world.
This book is part of the Scars & Bloom Series. Reading order:
Where My Heart Bleeds
Where My Mind Breaks
Where My Soul Blooms
