Fourteen was supposed to be an in-between year — too old for dolls, too young for love. But for Cara, it became the year everything changed.

When her brother’s best friend, Callum Adler, starts spending more time at their house, Cara notices things most adults ignore. The bruises. The quiet. The way their mother starts folding extra laundry like it’s second nature. Callum's broken home becomes a secret the whole family carries, and Cara — wide-eyed, overlooked, and quietly growing — starts to fall for him in all the ways she shouldn’t.

But Callum is four years older. Eighteen. Off-limits. Almost a man. And despite their quiet moments — the almosts, the shared glances, the night she asked to kiss him — he walks away without a goodbye, leaving her in the silence he helped create.

Years pass. Cara grows. Builds a life. Finds herself. By eighteen, she’s no longer just Kaden’s little sister. She’s her own person — confident, loved, maybe even happy. But everything tilts when she runs into Callum again at a skating rink. Older, composed, and entirely unexpected.

He’s not the same boy who used to sleep on her couch with bruises on his ribs — and she’s not the girl who watched him leave.

But unfinished things have a way of circling back.

Told in alternating perspectives of Cara and Callum, What We Never Said explores the slow burn of first love, the ache of timing, and what it really means to grow up — and grow apart — before finding your way back.

The cold air bit into my skin the second I stepped outside.


I hadn't grabbed my jacket. I hadn't really thought anything through, actually. I just needed to breathe — needed to get away from the music, the lights, James's hands, and Kaden's voice thick with warning. Needed to not feel like a spotlight was burning through my ribs.


I pulled out my phone, fumbling with the cracked screen as I tried to text Liv, or maybe just pretend I had someone to talk to. But my fingers were shaking. Whether from cold or nerves, I couldn't tell.


Fell from my hands, screen glowing bright in the dark as it hit the pavement and skidded just out of reach.


I knelt, sighing, brushing my hair from my face as I reached for it.


"Still dropping things when you're overwhelmed," came a voice behind me. Low. Familiar. Dangerous in all the wrong ways.


He was leaning against the brick wall of the building like he'd been there the whole time. Hoodie pulled up, hands shoved in his pockets, shadows carving out the sharpness in his face.


He looked older. Tired in a quiet, settled way. But his eyes — they were still the same. Still saw through people like glass.


I stood slowly, brushing off my legs. "How long have you been standing there?"


He smirked faintly. "Didn't want to interrupt the scene inside."


Silence stretched between us. Heavy. Loaded.


I didn't ask why he was here. Not yet. That wasn't the question clawing at my throat.


"Callum…" I said, voice quieter now. "How long have you been back?"


His eyes flickered toward me, like he was weighing the truth before handing it over.


I tried not to let it show. Tried to act casual, like that number didn't hit me like a betrayal.


He looked down, scuffing the toe of his shoe against the pavement. "You were fourteen when I left, Cara."


"And I'm not anymore," I said. Too fast. Too sharp.


He looked up then. Really looked. And the quiet between us turned into something else.


I swallowed. My throat was suddenly too dry. "Why now?"


"I don't know," he said honestly. "You looked happy. I almost left without saying anything at all."


He stepped forward — just slightly — until there was barely a breath between us.


Chapter 15 - Cara