Omega Psi Phi
WU Cheerleader
Performing Arts Student

Star Pugs Barista

To anyone looking in, Cyn Stone was the classic girl next door. Raised in the quiet suburbs of Ohio, her world was picture-perfect—spacious home, loving parents, everything money could buy. Her life seemed charmed, effortless.

But charm has a price.

The Stones were a prestigious family, deeply rooted in medicine. Doctors, surgeons, specialists—they carried legacy like a torch. And they expected Cyn to carry it too. But she was different. Restless. Creative. Rebellious in the softest way. Instead of scalpels and lab coats, she dreamed in colors and melodies.

At first, her parents masked their disappointment with forced smiles. They paid her tuition, rented her a private house near campus, and watched—hoping she’d come to her senses. But when Cyn began thriving in her new life—pledging a sorority, making real friends, falling in love with her classes—they pulled the rug out from under her.

No more tuition. No more rent. No more support. If she wouldn't follow their path, she’d walk her own alone.

Forced to grow up fast, Cyn applied to the university’s Work Study program and began working as a library assistant. It was there, buried in the silence of books and the hum of fluorescent lights, that she met someone who would shatter her entire world.

The connection was immediate—unexplainable. This girl wasn’t just a kindred spirit. She was her sister.

A sister she never knew existed.

With that revelation came the ultimate betrayal: Cyn had been adopted. And the Stone family—the people she had trusted, loved, lived for—had never told her. Not even once. Not even when she was old enough to deserve the truth.

Enraged, heartbroken, and drowning in a sense of identity that no longer fit, Cyn walked away from the only family she’d ever known. She moved into a dorm. She worked. She studied. She built herself from scratch.

And then, like fate had one more twist to throw, she met him.

Zek was mysterious, protective, magnetic in ways she couldn’t explain. He made her feel safe. Seen. They fell fast, and they fell deep. It was only later that she learned the truth: Zek was a lie. His real name was Jake, and he was in witness protection. A member of the Italian mafia, living with a past soaked in secrets.

She should have run. But she didn’t. She loved him. So she married him. And when she found out she was pregnant, it didn’t matter what name he had once gone by. He was hers.

But with new life came new risks. Cyn gave up cheer to protect her unborn child. She drifted from the sorority life—no longer the girl who fit in with sparkling dresses and carefully curated smiles. Her identity was shifting, fracturing. She almost gave up on school entirely.

But Jake held her steady.

Together, they faced everything. And when their son, Elias, was born, Cyn discovered a version of herself she’d never imagined—strong, grounded, protective, and more real than she had ever been.

Now Elias is four months old. Cyn has returned to cheerleading, trying to reconnect with the pieces of her old life. But nothing feels quite the same. Her major no longer speaks to her. Her future is a question mark. She has a child, a husband with a past, and a family she can’t forgive.

Even though she found a sisterhood that connects with her new sense of identity, and found her way back to cheer, through it all, one question lingers like a ghost in the back of her mind:

Who is she, really?