Once, she believed love would be like the petals in spring.
Soft.
Gentle.
Beautiful enough to change her life.
Back then, Lena Hart walked through campus with nothing but dreams in her pocket and a paper coffee cup warming her cold fingers. She wasn't rich. She wasn't born into anything special. But people turned when she passed—entranced by her quiet glow, like a fairytale someone forgot to write down.
She didn't know it yet, but everything was about to begin.
A friendship.
A stage.
A spotlight too bright for someone still learning how to breathe.
And then—a man.
Ethan Cross.
Beautiful in the way that ruins soft-hearted girls.
She would fall for him.
She would give up more than anyone ever should.
She would chase, and hope, and lose.
And she would rise.
Because sometimes, first love isn't a beginning.
Sometimes, it's the fire that clears the way for something real.
Something stronger.
Lena would lose almost everything before she understood what it meant to truly be loved.
And when the petals fell—one by one—what remained was a woman ready to bloom again.