"Mama, I can't just leave Abir." I admitted, telling her exactly why I couldn't do this. Not only would she be snatching me away from my family and friends but she was taking me away from the person I'd loved for five going on six years. I couldn't just walk away from him. "Baby.." She trailed off, sighing deeply. "I know you love Abir." She stood to her feet to stop packing for a moment and pulled me into her. "But I promise you, there will be other boys. Right now you have to do what's best for you and that's coming with your daddy and I to give you a better life." "Better life for who? You?!" I screamed out, becoming even more angry at her choice of words. As if my feelings were robotic and I could just turn them on and off for any and every person. "My feelings just don't matter to y'all at all, huh?" I asked, crying harder than before now. "Speak to your mother with some respect, Giselle." My father spat to me and I shook my head, watching as they stood there looking at me like some dumb teenager. This wasn't puppy love for me. I didn't spend 5 years building something, just to walk away from it for their dreams. I couldn't do it. Sinner. Book #1

𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐋 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎

Takashi and Toryn met each other when they were five. Became best friends at ten. Were inseparable by time they were fifteen. Built an indestructible bond at twenty. And now at the age of twenty five, after twenty years of friendship, due to the slowly deteriorating memory Toryn has had since she was a baby, she will one day forget everything. Including the one thing Takashi told her the first time they met. "Don't forget about me." -Takashi Maxwell Cover by: @lucida-