Maddie couldn’t erase the memories. There was a time when Rico cared deeply for her. He had been her protector. He was three years older and had fiercely defended her from bullies at the orphanage. At sixteen, his brash, rebellious nature caught the eye of a film director scouting locations. The director offered Rico a way out—a chance to leave the orphanage and make something of himself.
On the day he left, Maddie clung to him, sobbing into his chest.
“Rico, don’t leave me,” she cried.
He gently held her and promised, “Maddie, wait for me. I’ll come back for you.”
True to his word, Rico returned on his eighteenth birthday, two years later. He took her in and enrolled her in an ordinary high school, determined to give her a normal life. Maddie’s world revolved around him and for years, she had believed it always would.
But as she stared at the photo on her phone, the painful truth set in: she wasn’t part of Rico’s future anymore.
To Maddie, Rico had always been her world—the one person who made her feel seen, cared for and safe. He was her salvation, the light in her otherwise dark life. So, it was no surprise that as a teenager, she fell hopelessly in love with him.