Butterfly Lovers

In her final year of high school, Cass loses her parents and is left with nothing but a crumbling brick house. She takes in Sean, a bullied second-year student whose drunken father beats him daily, and when his mother is killed, Cass calls the police and has the father arrested. She tells the boy to live with her and call her sister, then drops out to support him—running a street stall, selling her blood, taking illegal jobs—until he graduates and asks to start a business with every cent of her savings.

One night Cass watches Sean accept a youth entrepreneurship award beside Ginny, a radiant girl at his side, while a cancer diagnosis sits in her hands. She slips away without a proper goodbye, returns to the old brick house, and tells him on the phone she is not coming back. Sean says he will come get her. A property agent, Jordan Kaylen, arrives to discuss demolition compensation, and Cass bargains hard, determined to leave Sean more money before her time runs out.