Brick Hill

Layla Reyes wasn’t looking to be noticed. New to Maple Hill High, she only wanted to keep her head down, finish senior year, and forget the mess she left behind in Chicago. But then she meets Jayden Carter—a quiet artist with soulful eyes and a sketchpad full of secrets. What starts as a simple school project soon becomes something deeper, richer, and more complicated than either of them expected. Just as they begin to open up, Layla’s past crashes into her present, threatening to undo everything she and Jayden were building. Can two people still healing learn to trust each other with more than just paint and poetry? Or will they stay stuck in the space between what almost was… and what could be?

Liana Hart gave everything to her marriage—her youth, her heart, and ultimately, her child. But when she went into labor, her husband Damien Cross walked out, choosing his career over their growing family. Alone and rejected, Liana rebuilt her life brick by brick, raising her daughter, Emma, without a penny of support or a whisper of regret. Four years later, Damien returns with a glamorous fiancée and an eye on the daughter he left behind. Desperate and cornered, Liana accepts an offer from Ethan Wolfe, Damien’s enigmatic billionaire boss: a marriage of convenience in exchange for protection, power—and the resources to fight for her daughter. But Ethan has his own secrets. He’s been watching Liana for years. And when Damien begins a legal war for custody, the lines between arrangement and obsession blur. As Ethan and Liana pretend to be husband and wife, desire erupts, loyalty is tested, and buried truths surface. What Damien didn’t know is that he was never the one meant to have Liana’s heart—or her child.