Hi, I’m Courtney! I’m a wife, mother, mortuary science student, and the author of Where the Darkness Found Me, a deeply personal novel inspired by my own experience with grooming. Writing this book was both a healing journey and a way to shine light on a topic that’s often hidden in silence.

Through my story, I hope to bring awareness to grooming and its impact, helping others feel seen and understood. When I’m not writing or advocating, I’m working at a funeral home, another part of my life where I find meaning in honoring stories, even the difficult ones.

Thank you for visiting my site and joining me in breaking the silence and sparking conversations that matter.

Melody Rayne was fifteen when the darkness found her—and called itself love.

Raised in a house where affection was weaponized and silence was safer than speaking, Melody learned early how to shrink herself to survive. Her mother manipulated her, her brother abused her, and the father who was supposed to protect her vanished. So when Lucian, a 32-year-old man, started giving her the kind of attention no one else had, she clung to it.

What she didn’t know was that she was already drowning.

Inspired by the author’s own experience with grooming and emotional abuse, Where the Darkness Found Me is not just fiction—it’s a testimony. A brutal, unfiltered look at what it means to be preyed upon while everyone looks the other way. It’s about how predators hide in plain sight, how a girl learns to dissociate just to stay breathing, and what happens when the truth comes crashing through the cracks.

This isn’t a story about healing. Not yet. This is the story of the wound.

Of being chosen—for all the wrong reasons.

Of being loved—like a possession.

Of surviving—when no one ever thought you would speak.

Releasing October 13, 2025.
You won’t forget Melody Rayne. Because the girl she was… is real.