The Things We Break by Melissa Naatz
It is said that we are connected by a red thread to the one we are destined to be with. That thread may get tangled and stretched, but it will never break. However, for Evan and Tristan, the strength of their thread will be tested.
Evan Carter fell in love with the beautiful Tristan Anderson after the first time Tristan kissed her in the eighth grade. Tristan was Evan’s first in everything, including seeing the destruction an alcoholic father could cause. At eighteen, they planned to run away and leave their small town behind. Evan would go to college, and Tristan would be free of his abusive father. But one night changes everything, and Tristan becomes the first boy to break Evan’s heart.
Twelve years later, Evan has a great boyfriend, a career she loves, and supportive friends. She thinks she’s over the broken boy who crushed her heart in high school. Until one night Tristan walks back into her life, and all the feelings she thought she had packed away come racing back. Tristan is no longer the broken boy she once knew but a man with a different life. A life he wants to prove to her is better. That he is better.
However, fate is not done with the two young lovers, and the strength of their thread is tested once again when tragedy and truth threaten to tear them apart—this time for good
Trigger Warning: alcohol consumption, swearing, physical altercation in married relationship, misogyny
