Photograph Lyrics Novels & Stories

"I'm a mess, trying to fix what I became and for your own good maybe you should walk away." — Zayn Cole Santiago. On the surface Zayn Santiago has everything. A powerful name, a prestigious law degree within reach and a father who runs the country's most influential firm. But beneath the surface is a man held together by anger and adrenaline, spending his nights in underground fighting rings and illegal street races, chasing the only feeling that drowns out the silence his mother left behind when she took her life. By day he's the son of the prospective president. By night he's a completely different kind of dangerous. He bleeds for fun and calls it living. Aliya Martinez is a 21-year-old pre-law student with an ambition to become one of the best lawyers in the world. She’s the calm to his storm, The light to his darkness, The peace he never knew he needed, And the perfection in his ruin. Like fire and gasoline, they were never supposed to cross paths, but one night was all it took to turn everything upside down. When Zayn saves a drunk girl from a club, he thinks that’s the end of it—until a photograph surfaces of him carrying an unconscious girl into his penthouse at 2 a.m. With his father, Eduardo Santiago, running for the presidency, the scandal threatens everything. The solution is simple. An arranged engagement between Zayn and the girl. For two years. What starts as a fake relationship turns into something far more complicated as real feelings surface and buried secrets threaten to destroy everything they’ve built. Some secrets don't stay buried. Some feelings don't stay fake. Some pasts should never collide. But some ruins are far too beautiful to walk away from.

He was the campus king. She was the only heart he couldn't steal. Jace Kingston is untouchable. Star hockey player. Campus legend. A walking trail of broken hearts and whispered warnings. Girls call him King. They say it like a prayer. I say it like a curse. He nearly ran me over with his sports car last semester. He throws money around like it means nothing. He smirks while girls cry over him. And now, thanks to my tutoring job, he's my assignment. One semester. One paper. Five hundred dollars that I desperately need to keep a roof over my head. The rules are simple. He shows up. He does the work. He doesn't flirt with me, charm me, or treat me like another conquest. But Jace Kingston doesn't follow rules. He shows up with bruises he won't explain. He looks at me like I'm something he wants to break. And when he accidentally lets his armor slip, I see something terrifying underneath. A boy afraid of becoming a monster. A boy who flinches at loud voices and keeps a photograph of his mother hidden in his drawer. A boy who might be just as broken as I am. I can't afford to fall for him. I have rent to pay. A future to build. A promise I made to myself when I watched my mother die with nothing but debt and a daughter who couldn't save her. I swore I'd never depend on anyone again. But Jace is everywhere now. In my study sessions. In my thoughts. In the way my pulse stutters when he says my name. And when his demons come hunting, I realize the worst truth of all. He's not just my enemy anymore. He's the one person I might destroy myself to save.

On Christmas Eve, my father got the man I had secretly loved for ten years drunk and sent him to my bed. When I woke up the next morning, Roy pulled away from my attempt at a good-morning kiss. His voice was cold and distant as he agreed to marry me. After the wedding, Roy wasted no time submitting a transfer request. He took an overseas post and left. He did not return for five years. I gave birth to our daughter, Eve, alone and waited for him to come back home. When I heard that Roy had finally applied to return to a domestic position, I was overjoyed. I spent days preparing, imagining our first reunion as husband and wife. But even when the clock struck midnight, he still hadn't come home. Our daughter, ever so thoughtful, placed her most treasured possession—a photograph of Roy—into my hands. "Don't cry, Mommy," she said softly. "Look, Daddy's right here." I tried to convince myself that his absence was due to a delayed flight. But later that night, while watching the news, I saw him. He was on a crowded city street, holding a young girl in his arms. Beside him stood a woman, her smile soft and warm. Facing the camera, Roy said, "Being with them is my greatest wish." At that moment, something inside me broke. I wrote up the divorce papers, packed our things, and planned to take Eve to change her identity. I didn't want him anymore. The day before we left, a man I had never met came to see me. He was Roy's father. "You could call me Dad," he said, a faint smile playing on his lips. "But I'd rather you call me Ryan." I told him everything about the past five years—how I had waited, how I had hoped. When I finished, he laughed softly, an unusual warmth in his voice. "If it was just business," he said, "perhaps your father should have tied a bow around me and sent me to your bed instead. But I hold my liquor well—if I ever end up wrapped in a bow, you can be sure it's by choice."