Chapter 1 PAST
Seventeen-year-old Alina Carter had everything she thought she needed—a loving home, two wonderful parents, and a life full of music and laughter. But everything shattered the night a drunk driver ran a red light. In one moment, her parents were gone, and her world collapsed.
Now, Alina lives with her older brother Ethan, who is just twenty-three and barely navigating adulthood himself. Once her goofy, carefree brother, Ethan is now her legal guardian—suddenly forced to trade weekend gigs with his band for a steady job at a local garage. The small two-bedroom apartment they move into is a far cry from the family home, and neither of them really knows how to deal with the grief. They love each other, but the silence in the house speaks louder than any argument.
Alina struggles with school, friends, and guilt. She finds refuge in the piano, the last gift her parents ever gave her. Ethan tries to hold it together, but the pressure weighs him down. As secrets from their parents' past begin to surface—an unopened letter, a mysterious locket—Alina begins to wonder how well they really knew the people who raised them.
Together, the siblings must navigate not just their shared grief but the possibility that their parents left behind more than memories—they left unfinished stories, ones that might just change how Alina sees herself, her future, and even her brother.