Conrad Fisher

Conrad Fisher was always the boy who carried the weight of everything: his mother's illness, his father's expectations, and the shadow of a brother he couldn't stop hurting, even if he didn't want to. Precisely for that reason, there were unwritten rules he would never dare break. The most important one: never get close to anyone who had ever been Jeremiah's.

But fate, cruel as ever, puts her in his path again. His brother's ex, the girl who once filled him with silent jealousy, now stands before him, different, stronger, more impossible to ignore. At first, he tries to keep his distance, with that cold shell that always protects him, but the spark ignites anyway: glances that last too long, conversations that should never have taken place, and that tension between the forbidden and the inevitable.

Conrad knows he's playing with fire, that if Jeremiah finds out, he could lose everything. And yet, for the first time in a long time, he feels like someone truly sees him. Not as the perfect older brother, nor as the unattainable boy, but as himself: with all his flaws.

Now, in Cousins, under the dim lights of a seemingly endless party, the two meet in a secluded corner. She looks at him as if he holds a secret as big as hers. He holds her gaze, knowing that a single step would be enough to cross the line he never thought he'd dare cross...

—“We haven’t spoken in a while… and, honestly, I didn’t think it would happen again.”