Midnight Through the Door Another holiday alone wasn’t supposed to surprise Clara Bennett. Christmas had passed quietly. New Year’s Eve promised more of the same—snow-soft streets, half-torn party flyers, a night meant to be endured rather than celebrated. She was just walking to the corner market when she heard it. A faint music-box melody. A sound that didn’t belong. A door that hadn’t been there yesterday. Beyond it waits a winter ball that exists only at midnight—where time bends, choices linger, and some people arrive without meaning to leave. It’s there that Clara meets Julian, a man who seems to understand the rules of the night better than anyone… and who carries the quiet weight of someone who has already chosen once. But magic never lasts forever. As dawn approaches, Clara must step back into the real world alone—carrying a memory that refuses to fade. What follows is not a race against fate, but a season of becoming: learning how to live fully, how to hope without clinging, and how to choose love even when there are no guarantees. Because some doors open only once. And some loves are strong enough to cross worlds—twice. A quiet New Year’s Eve romance about choice, healing, and finding home—not in magic, but in each other.