Rice Lake

Justin has never quite felt like everyone else.not broken, not dangerous, just...... not normalwhen life begins to shift around him. The only steady thing is Aubrey.she becomes his anchor in late-night silences, in quiet rooms,heavy with thoughts he doesn't always know how to explain.their connection is intense, tender, and sometimes fragile.it feels less like teenage romance and more like survival. As the world keeps moving, expectations grow heavier.family. Identity. The invisible pressure to "be okay.

Justin Peters thought coming home would mean closure. Instead, it marks the beginning. After a suspicious fire destroys his parents' house, Justin returns to Brainerd, Minnesota — and to the frozen shoreline of Rice Lake, where the past once felt safe. But grief quickly turns to dread when violence follows him home. A slaughtered dog placed with precision. A woman vanishing the same night as the fire. A financial trail leading back to a secret affair buried in 1997.