Sunlight Between the Fog

Zoraida Kennedy is a sixteen-year-old girl trying to hold on to the parts of herself that still feel steady. Life in San Francisco is full of edges: grief that lingers in doorways, classmates who don't quite understand, and a city that always feels half in shadow. Zoraida keeps to her rhythms, anchored by her Kindness Wall project, her grandmother's wisdom, and a heart that still believes in the good.

Then Devon Fields transfers in.

He's distant, magnetic, and hard to read. She's cautious but curious. What begins as helping him find his way around turns into shared classes, bookstore afternoons, and long walks that feel like secrets.

But not everything said in a soft voice is gentle. And not all closeness is safety.

As their connection deepens, so do the doubts. Subtle shifts in Devon's tone, his quiet criticisms, his offhand remarks, the way he rewrites moments until she questions her memory-it all builds slowly, like fog in her chest.. Zoraida finds herself changing in ways she can't explain. Her confidence flickers. Her voice grows quieter. And somewhere between the fog and the silence, she has to ask: when is love real, and when is it just a shadow wearing its shape?

A slow-burning, emotionally honest novel about self-worth, healing, and the courage it takes to choose yourself.