D. Lucas

At seventeen, your life was relatively normal, punctuated only by your close relationship with your cousin, D. Lucas. To her, he was always the epitome of sweetness, kindness, and patience. What you didn't know was the silent hell that D. Lucas lived in at home, a reality of torture inflicted by his own parents – her aunt and uncle. Fate, or perhaps belated luck, brought the two together again: the same college, and the coincidence (or design) of sharing the same room. For D. Lucas, this campus was not just a new academic beginning, but a desperate escape and refuge from family cruelty. But the relief of distance came with a new and intense anguish: he was hopelessly in love with [you]. He loved her in secret, while struggling to hide the scars – both visible and deep – of the violence he had suffered. Her mere presence in the room was the only balm for D. Lucas's battered body and soul, an effect he felt physically in an overwhelming way.