Secrets In Silence

Addison Gregory, Daughter the successful lawyer duo in Seattle; to the world she lives the perfect life but Addison wants nothing to do with money, all she ever wanted was to feel some sort of love, something that never came from her parents.

Her mother cared more about appearances than a daughter who she carried and nurtured until birth. Addison was no used to her after the age of six when she got tired of playing dress-up like a human doll and after that was raised by an array of nannies; some good and some bad.

Some took care of her and others only cared about taking care of her father. Addison was exposed to the ugliness of life, greed, adultery and loneliness at a very early age.

She was an object to them and a dutiful one. She attended the classes they picked, dated the boys pushed at her by her mother, applied for the colleges they wanted and never spoke out of line, especially In public. The whole act made her sick and she craved to be free from them but even as a legal adult at nineteen, she was bound to them in a way worse than blood.

Her parents careful planning lead her down a dark and twisted road which almost ended in her death and now they want nothing to do with it, since she can’t talk anymore she’s no used to them and they don’t want to deal with the questions of what happened that night; so they send her away.

Addison goes to live the summer with her Aunt on a ranch and she thinks that it’s what could finally push her to end things once and for all, little did she realize it was probably the only thing that could save her life; from them and from herself.

Liam Johnston, The boy next door who grew up with her cousins, who would rather hurt himself than harm another human being. When he sees what happened to her at a simple touch he’s the most curious as to what happened to her.

With a deaf grandfather he has no problem speaking her language, content to befriend her and spend countless hours in silence if that was what it took. He didn’t have a plan exactly, he just knew that listening to her screams at night and seeing her paralyzing fear of being touched wasn’t something he could ignore.

His heart terrified Addison from the beginning, the loving nature of all of them did because she’s never known what love is. All her life she’s been pushed around, manipulated; beaten even. Always controlled, never loved. She didn’t know how to react to the overwhelming amount that she was now surrounded by.

Addison doesn’t know how to connect with people so Liam vows to himself to show her, to teach her what it’s like to let people in, to let people help her and love her, not to be afraid and believe in the good in people again.

They were the complete opposite so as Addison comes to terms with the ideas that maybe Liam and her family is right; Liam’s illusion of life will then be shattered. She learns about love from him while he learns about pain from her. As he teaches her about the good in the world she educates him on the bad. You can’t have light without darkness. Addison’s life has been black while Liam’s was white and Addison doesn’t want to taint that.

She’s afraid that being near her will cause him pain, that being who she is will cause them all to be pulled into the darkness that has been her soul since she was fifteen.

Neither of them understands that life is to be lived in grey, that you have to have balance and not everyone is bad but not everyone is good.

Addison is suffocating in her life. Will she let him in, see that she’s not toxic or the darkness in the world like she fears but rather living in a life where the lights were shattered? Will she see that all she needs is to fix those lights and then she’ll be able to shine like she craves to, As Liam does. Will she ever understand that she has a whole family of people willing to help her fix them, a real family?

Will Liam finally get to her, will he finally help her see that her life is worth living and be able to find her in the darkness, to unknowingly save her life or will he finally understand the term that the path to hell was paved with good intentions.

No one understands just how many secrets there are to her silence but by the end of the summer the truth may just come out and who knows if anyone is actually prepared to hear them.