Two girls loved him.

Two girls lost him.

Two girls carried the pieces he could not hold.

Before the world saw the broken version of Gabriel, Marilyn knew him as the good boy everyone praised. She grew up beside him at the blue kindergarten table, through awkward crushes, first heartbreaks, and the slow, quiet changes no one else seemed to notice. She is there before and during the Fall, watching the boy she loves unravel under a weight he will not name, fighting to believe the goodness in him is still real even as it slips through her fingers.

After the damage is done, Rose meets a very different Gabriel. The softness in him is buried deeper, his eyes are hollowed by things he refuses to talk about, and yet, she still sees something worth holding onto. Rose does not get the unbroken version of him. She gets the Gabriel who is already fractured, already haunted, already tired of himself. She becomes the one who holds his last tenderness and learns what it costs to love someone who has forgotten how to be whole.

Told in intimate, alternating perspectives, Loving Him in Pieces is the untold story behind Of Wolves & Butterflies:

Marilyn: the girl who knew his first laughter and stood in the light with him as it went dark.

Rose: the girl who met him in the aftermath and chose him anyway, even when it hurt.

This is not Gabriel’s story.

This is the story of the ones who tried to love him before and after the Fall.

For listeners of Of Wolves & Butterflies, this novella does not rewrite or contradict the original. Instead, it slips behind the scenes and into the memories we never saw: childhood moments, private fears, quiet acts of loyalty, and the emotional cost of loving someone who is coming apart.

A quiet, aching companion to Of Wolves & Butterflies, Loving Him in Pieces is about first love, second chances, and the pieces of someone we carry long after they are gone from our lives.