Hands Held High

Aaliyah has a great life. She has a loving family and an amazing best friend. She's one
year away from achieving her life dream of going to Harvard. Nothing can ruin her happiness.
Until the night a cop mistakes her younger brother for a gang member on the street and
ultimately kills him in front of Aaliyah. Now riddled with grief over the loss of her brother as
well as the guilt for not saving her brother in time, Aaliyah has to learn how to adjust to a new
life without Jeremiah. A life where her family is broken and her mother can't look at her. The
days seem to drag on as Aaliyah has to wade through her grief to come out on the other side as
strong as she was before.
With the hope of going away to an Ivy League school and a first love, Aaliyah needs to
find a way to happiness despite the tragedy that will live with her forever. In a story that centers
around grief and the complexities of family, it is a story of heartbreak and hope for a light at the
end of the tunnel.