Everything I'm not allowed to have

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To everyone who opened this book,

Thank you. Genuinely. There are a million stories on this app competing for your time, and you chose to give some of it to mine. That is not a small thing to me, and I don't take it for granted.

This story has been sitting in my chest for a while now, the ache of loving someone you are not supposed to want, the slow unraveling of two people who keep finding their way back to each other no matter how many reasons they are given to stay apart. I wanted to write something that would make you feel it in your body, not just read about it. The racing heart, the held breath, the way certain people leave fingerprints on you that never quite fade.

Theo and Elena have lived in my head for months now, and I am so happy to finally let them live in yours.

A few notes before you start. This story deals with real emotional weight; secrecy, power imbalance, heartbreak, and eventually, motherhood. I have tried to handle every part of it with care, but please look after yourselves as you read.

If this story moves you even a little, I would love nothing more than to hear it. Votes and comments mean more to me than I can really explain, they are how stories like this find their way to other readers, and they are also just genuinely the best part of putting something like this out into the world. If a line makes you feel something, tell me. If you scream at a cliffhanger, I want to know. This book was written for you to live inside of, so come live in it loudly.

Thank you for being here from chapter one. I hope it's everything you didn't know you needed.

With everything,
Kemisola Agbaje 🖤