Before We Were Fire

Five years ago, Elaras life was a bonfire. Liam was the only match.

Now, Elara is a successful architect in Chicago, meticulously building a life designed to be earthquake-proof. Every precise blueprint, every straight line, is a defense against the chaos Liam left behind. She has learned cautious trust, fierce independence, and how to guard her heart with the steel of a skyscraper.

But when a massive residential renovation forces Elara and Liam—the man she spent a half-decade avoiding—into the same professional orbit, the past slams into her present. Liam, now a successful designer himself, is an unavoidable presence. He is the fault line shed meticulously patched over. He remembers the intense passion—the fire—she desperately tries to forget.

As their professional boundary dissolves, Elara is forced to confront the terrifying truth: the structure of her new life is built on ashes, and Liam only needs one spark to make everything burn again.

A high-stakes, dramatic second-chance romance about two people who must decide if they are still the fire... or if they have finally become the ember.