Meet The Characters
Hanna Nowack- DeLuca
The Survivor
Hanna has spent nearly a decade rebuilding the pieces of a life shattered in a single night. Once passionate and full of fire, she now moves through the world with quiet detachment, guarded, focused, and painfully aware of everything she’s lost.
Grief reshaped her. Her daughter Caitlyn became her reason to keep going, and her work in criminal psychology became the only thing that still made sense. Love? That was buried with Brian.
But when Hanna crosses paths with a killer who knows too much, and a man determined to protect her; everything she thought she’d locked away begins to resurface.
Caitlyn DeLuca
The Light in the Dark
Caitlyn (10 years old) is the only thing keeping Hanna tethered to the world. With her father’s steady eyes and her mother’s fire, she’s bright, intuitive, and far more perceptive than a girl her age should be.
She brings levity to shadows. Hope to grief. But innocence is fragile—and when the past crashes into the present, Caitlyn may be the one who pays the price for the secrets the adults tried to bury.
Brian DeLuca
The Ghost That Won’t Let Go
Brian is gone—buried in the ground, but never fully gone from Hanna’s life. In the stillness of her days and the quiet corners of her mind, he remains. Not just a memory, but a presence that refuses to fade.
It has been nine years since the night everything changed. He was the love she never stopped choosing, the man she thought she would grow old with. His absence should have been the end of their story, but some love doesn’t die. It lingers, haunting the spaces between what was and what might have been.
Nick O’Sullivan
The One Who Waited
Nick was always just a step behind. A friend. A constant. The one who stayed close when the rest of the world moved on.
After Brian’s death, he became Hanna’s steady presence—the man who picked up the pieces, who waited quietly in the background while she grieved. He loved her. At least, that’s what he told himself.
But love that waits too long starts to expect something in return. And the longer Nick waited, the harder it became to tell whether he was holding space… or refusing to let go.
Richard Hale
The Devil in the Dark
Richard doesn’t need to raise his voice to send a chill down your spine. He is calm, measured, and always five steps ahead. Manipulation is his weapon. Silence is his strategy.
He doesn’t break people outright—he unravels them from the inside, turning their own fears against them. Every word is a move, every pause a trap. And he isn’t done with Hanna.
Not yet.
Steve Riley
The Protector-The Agent-The Guardian.
Steve Riley is more than an FBI agent—he’s the rock Hanna and Caitlyn lean on when everything else starts to crack. A man of honor and quiet strength, Steve carries his past as a Marine with him, battle-tested and unshakable. He’s sharp, loyal, and relentless when it comes to protecting the people he cares about.
He’s in a long-term relationship with Rachel, but his heart is pulled in more than one direction. Bound by a promise and driven by instinct, Steve watches over Hanna and Caitlyn with a loyalty that runs deeper than duty.
In a world full of shadows and secrets, Steve is the shield—the one who stands in the way when everything else threatens to fall apart
Some love stories end in tragedy. Some in betrayal.
And some? Some never really end at all.