Prologue

Even though I had known it was coming, I still wasn’t ready. Sitting in the warmth of the bathroom, I stared worrisomely towards the train ticket that had been tacked to my bathroom mirror. It didn’t seem to matter that I had been preparing for this for months; the fear was rising inside of me quickly. This was Dalkery we were talking about. I hadn’t been there since I was seventeen—that summer—and I wasn’t sure how I would handle it now. The memories were eight years old, but still fresh in my mind and my heart. They hung on my clothes and stung in my eyes, and made sure I could never forget.

That summer had changed everything.

Pulling myself from the safety of the bathtub, the warm bubbles and sunlight, I let out a loud sigh. How I would ever be prepared for returning to Dalkery, I wasn’t sure. But there was no turning back now. Pulling my hair back from my face, I glanced in the mirror towards my reflection. So much had changed in the years since I had been gone, and yet sometimes I could still see that girl in me—seventeen, lost and alone, and looking for something real. Those were her memories haunting me, reminding me of everything that had happened.

Standing there in the steam of the bath, her memories came rushing back to me, reminding me of the day it all started..