I've spent my entire eighteen years fighting to survive. My junky mom disappeared years ago, leaving me to fend for myself against my evil drug-dealing step-brother. I never met my father. I don't even know his name. All I wanted to do was survive and graduate high school to get as far away from the Villas and this run-down trailer park as possible. I was doing that until he forced himself into my life and literally flipped my world upside down. He's from the Valley where the richest of the rich live—a bully in every sense of the word.

I can't stand my best friend's crush, but now I have to live with him. It's a good thing that I'm not attracted to him, because that would make everything so much worse.

I didn’t believe my fractured heart and broken soul could endure any more pain. Until Jared rocks up to the art gallery where I work, with his fiancée in tow, and I’m drowning again. Seeing him brings everything to the surface, so I flee. Placing distance between us again, I’m determined to put him behind me once and for all. Then he reappears at my door, begging me for another chance. I know I should turn him away. Try telling that to my heart.

Our parents’ friendship meant we had to co-exist. But it didn’t mean we had to like it. He purposely did things to get under my skin. Like spreading rumors about me in junior high so no boys wanted to go out with me. Or sleeping with several of my high school friends, just to prove he could.

I didn't think there could be anything worse than losing my parents...until I changed schools and became the target of the A-squad - the cruel and popular a-holes of Diamond Lake High. The worst of the group? Chase Adams. An arrogant, rich, hell-raiser who gets his thrills by street racing, partying, and playing games. This year he and his crowd have it out for me. They think they can shake me. Ruin me. Break me. What they don't realize is that I've already been to hell and back. If I have to return, it won't be alone.