In Search of Autumn

After a devastating divorce and career setback, marketing professional Autumn Gardener makes the last move she ever imagined; returning to Ebondale, the Chicago neighborhood she spent years trying to forget.

Back in the place where everything fell apart, Autumn can no longer outrun the ghosts waiting for her. The friend she lost too young. The guilt that's shaped every choice since. And Amir, her best friend, whose unspoken feelings have simmered beneath the surface of their friendship for far too long.

Healing doesn't come with a roadmap. It comes in raw conversations with her sister Mia, in the familiar rhythms of her old community, and in finally facing the question she's been avoiding: What does it mean to be loyal to others when you've abandoned yourself?

In Search of Autumn is an intimate portrait of a woman learning that going backward is sometimes the only way forward. It's a story about the weight of unprocessed grief, the courage it takes to rebuild, and the radical act of choosing yourself, even when the path is fractured and the destination unclear.