Prologue

My dream didn’t just die; it shattered.

One moment, I was gravity-bound only by choice, a creature of silk and stage-lights. The next, the music stopped. I didn’t just lose the ability to dance on my toes; I lost the simple dignity of a steady stride. For two years, I lived in the wreckage of that silence, nursing a physical ache that was nothing compared to the hollow space where my ambition used to live.

Now, I am running—or at least, the closest version of running I can manage. I’m leaving behind the pitying whispers of the only home I’ve ever known to find a version of myself that doesn’t smell like antiseptic and crushed tulle.

Then I met Jax Dias.

He’s a jerk. Arrogant, loud, and impossibly competitive. But Jax did the one thing no one else could manage: he looked me in the eye and didn’t see a tragedy. He didn’t look down at my uneven gait or the "embarrassing walk" my ex-partner used to mock. To Jax, I wasn’t a broken dancer or a girl to be pitied.

I was just the person standing between him and the top of the dean’s list.

I didn’t know whether to hate him for his coldness or thank him for his blindness. All I knew was that for the first time in two years, someone was looking at me and seeing a rival instead of a victim.

I am Grace Williams, and I’m learning that some dreams have to break so better ones can grow in the cracks.