Only When It Breaks

First love. First betrayal. Some truths only surface when everything falls apart.

Seventeen-year-old Emmie Carter has always flown under the radar. Ignored by the popular crowd, overlooked by her classmates, and perfectly fine with it. That is, until she finds the lost phone of Kai Banks, the school’s golden boy with a sharp tongue and a love for partying.
When Emmie starts texting him anonymously, an unexpected connection sparks. Online, Kai is different, honest, vulnerable, almost… kind. But in real life, he’s still the boy who doesn’t even notice her. And when their parents start dating and Emmie’s quiet world crashes into his, she braces for disaster.
She doesn’t expect to fall for him.
She definitely doesn’t expect him to fall back.
And she never sees the betrayal coming.
What begins as a secret crush spirals into a cruel game, one that leaves Emmie humiliated, heartbroken, and questioning everything she thought she knew about herself. Now, with her world in pieces, she must decide who she wants to be when there’s nothing left to hide behind.

A raw, emotional story of first love, painful truths, and the strength it takes to survive them.