Lotus Oliver learned early that survival meant pretending.Lie when you're scared. Smile when you're cornered. Trust no one. Never let your guard down. Because wanting something only ever meant one thing: losing it.Then she met Joseph “Jo” Oliver. He didn’t just see her. He unraveled her, layer by layer, until there was nothing left to hide. And somehow, she gave him everything: her fire, her fight, her heart. A marriage. A family.But the voice inside her never went quiet. It kept whispering that she wasn’t safe. That it could all slip away.And maybe, just maybe, it was right. The question is: will Lotus be able to stop it?This is a bonus origin story from The Girl Once Known trilogy. It can be enjoyed as a standalone and contains minimal spoilers for the main series.