Author’s Note — Glass Hearts

They say hearts are strong. But I've always thought they're more like glass.

Not because they're weak…but because they're fragile and beautiful. See, glass can hold light. It can reflect it. It can crack in silence or shatter in a storm. But even broken, it catches light in ways solid things never can.

And sometimes, the people who love the hardest are the ones who've been cracked the most.

This story is about boys with glass hearts.

Ash…who carries more than any nineteen year-old should. A cracked heart held together by his love for his little sister, his dying mother, and the dreams he's barely allowed to have.

And Dominic… he's the golden boy, the picture-perfect son in a glass mansion. A boy who's been told all his life that softness is a sin and love should come with rules.

They weren't supposed to meet.

They weren't supposed to feel anything.

But hearts don't ask for permission before they fall.

And when two broken things collide, they either destroy each other…

Or they find a way to fit….fractures and all.

"Maybe love isn't something whole. Maybe it's two cracked things pressing close enough to stop the bleeding."

And maybe glass can be melted and reshaped into something even stronger.

To anyone out there feeling like their heart is too breakable: This is for you.

— With all my heart, broken and whole,

HiddenPearl