ADDICTED TO MAYBE PART ONE: BEFORE THE STORM

ADDICTED TO MAYBE

PART ONE — BEFORE THE STORM

Before love became addictive, it first felt safe.

Minah Tracy Effiong has spent most of her life hiding inside silence. Quiet, observant, and emotionally fragile beneath her calm beauty, she moves carefully through life after losing her parents at a young age and growing up under the strict protection of her aunt, Grace-Ann. To the world, Minah seems untouchable — the kind of girl people admire from a distance. But inside, she is lonely, anxious, and terrified of being abandoned.

As university approaches, Minah hopes for a fresh start at the University of Port Harcourt — a chance to finally become the confident girl she has always pretended to be. But just before everything changes, an unexpected message from Kabiru Bright Bello — a calm, mysterious boy from her past — begins to pull her into something deeper than attention and far more dangerous than attraction.

At the same time, memories of her first heartbreak still haunt her. The soft love that once made her feel seen also left bruises she never fully healed from. Now, standing on the edge between innocence and emotional obsession, Minah must navigate friendship, beauty, loneliness, jealousy, and the terrifying need to be loved.

Set in the emotionally charged atmosphere of Port Harcourt, Before the Storm is a deeply intimate coming-of-age romance about quiet girls who feel too much, love too deeply, and mistake emotional attention for safety.

Because sometimes, the most dangerous storms begin softly.