If She Lived

Cross is a disillusioned but brilliant university student doing whatever it takes to survive, from hawking red plums on the streets to navigating the unforgiving realities of poverty. His relentless drive for self-preservation shifts when he crosses paths with Rose, a guarded woman whose affluent facade hides a family secretly crumbling into financial ruin. Despite her engagement to an abusive fiancé named Duke, and her father's stern warnings for Cross to keep his distance, he finds himself inextricably drawn into Rose’s chaotic world.

When Cross uncovers a massive insurance fraud orchestrated by Rose's own uncle, the stakes quickly become profoundly personal. With Rose's family facing imminent eviction at the hands of Duke's powerful father, Cross sheds his lone-wolf mentality to become their unexpected strategist. Utilizing his sharp intellect and a dark, violent past he’d rather keep hidden, Cross masterminds a daring legal plan involving adverse possession to save their home and expose the multi-million-crutze embezzlement.

As their dangerous investigation binds them closer together, Cross and Rose forge an undeniable romance, cemented by shared trauma and matching halves of a broken heart pendant. With the truth in their grasp, the family home practically secured, and a promising new internship on the horizon, the couple seems poised to finally claim their happiness. But in a city where the powerful always dictate the rules, Cross and Rose are about to discover that one fateful encounter with a high-speed state motorcade could ruthlessly shatter their hard-won future forever.