Sometimes, the hardest part of growing up is realizing your heroes are only human. Jayden Michaels has spent his entire life being the pillar-the protector for his friends, the rock for his social circle, and the devoted son of an ideal marriage. But when his mother, Mildred, passes away, the sturdy world Jayden built begins to crumble. Stripped of his North Star and drowning in a grief he refuses to acknowledge, Jayden finds his life spiraling into a haze of addiction and resentment.
The final blow comes when he discovers his father, Kenneth, moving on with a stranger in the very house that still holds the ghost of Mildred's presence. The betrayal is absolute. The man Jayden worshipped as a saint is revealed to be a flawed, lonely human-and Jayden doesn't know if he can ever forgive him. As he fights to save his relationship with his partner, Asia, and steps into the terrifying, beautiful role of fatherhood, Jayden must navigate the wreckage of his own expectations.
Can he break the cycle of his past and build a future on his own terms? Or will the ghost of the son he used to be keep him from becoming the man he needs to be?
Sometimes, the hardest part of growing up is realizing your heroes are only human. Jayden Michaels has spent his entire life being the pillar-the protector for his friends, the rock for his social circle, and the devoted son of an ideal marriage. But when his mother, Mildred, passes away, the sturdy world Jayden built begins to crumble. Stripped of his North Star and drowning in a grief he refuses to acknowledge, Jayden finds his life spiraling into a haze of addiction and resentment.
The final blow comes when he discovers his father, Kenneth, moving on with a stranger in the very house that still holds the ghost of Mildred's presence. The betrayal is absolute. The man Jayden worshipped as a saint is revealed to be a flawed, lonely human-and Jayden doesn't know if he can ever forgive him. As he fights to save his relationship with his partner, Asia, and steps into the terrifying, beautiful role of fatherhood, Jayden must navigate the wreckage of his own expectations.
Can he break the cycle of his past and build a future on his own terms? Or will the ghost of the son he used to be keep him from becoming the man he needs to be?