Chapter One
Caleb
Growing up with a single mother was tough. I have no doubt Mum loved me with every fiber of her being, but loving your child doesn’t automatically make you a saint, or, for that matter, a good mother. My mum, Macy, was far from the angel she worked so hard to convince everyone she was.
I was seven years old when everything went to hell.
I was sick—really sick. Terminally ill. And then Mum decided it was time for me to meet my father.
You’d think something like that would have been all rainbows and heartfelt reunions, but Mum had no idea of the absolute shitstorm she was about to unleash when she went looking for Colter Slade.
So before I can tell you about my present, I need to tell you about my past.
Being terminally ill was something my mother never handled well. Seeing me sick all the time broke something inside her. Some days, she barely functioned at all. I was a quiet kid and had only one friend—Indica Malone. Indi was always there, even when I was at my worst.
I had kidney failure, and I was dying.
Mum wasn’t a match, so she had no choice but to find my father.
She never spoke about him when I was younger.
All I knew was what she told me. That ‘we were better off without him while he lived the life he was supposed to have,’ and we struggled to survive.
We barely had money, hardly any food some weeks, and once I got sick, things only became worse.
Mum worked when she could, but most of the time she had to stay home and take care of me.
Even as a kid, I could see how badly it was wearing her down.
Eventually, Mum contacted an old friend, Jessi, who also knew my father.
From what little I overheard, Jessi was very interested in Mum finding him.
A little too interested. Even back then, I remember thinking she sounded excited by the idea.
So Mum packed up the car and drove us from London to Oxfordshire.
For a healthy seven-year-old, a ninety-minute drive is boring. For a sick seven-year-old who spent half his life exhausted, it felt endless. But none of that mattered the second we pulled up outside the Slade manor.
The place was massive. Huge iron gates opened automatically, revealing this gigantic estate hidden behind high fences and sprawling grounds.
I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my life.
Our house back in London was tiny, dark, and falling apart in places, but this place looked like something out of a movie.
I remember thinking I never wanted to leave.
By the time Mum parked the car, I was weak and tired, but I still followed her up to the front door. She told me to stay close and let her do the talking.
A beautiful woman answered the door—her name was Dee.
Even at seven, I could tell she was uncomfortable the second she saw Mum standing there. The tension between them filled the entire doorway, though I didn’t fully understand why.
Then another car pulled into the driveway, and two men stepped out, but I only noticed one of them.
He looked terrified, but Mum smiled the second she saw him.
He walked toward us cautiously while the other guy hung back, watching everything unfold. I didn’t know it then, but the terrified man was Colter Slade—my father.
Mum told me to play with the little dog running around the front yard, so I did, but I stayed close enough to hear bits and pieces of the conversation.
Enough to understand one thing…
He had no idea I existed.
Dee started crying upstairs not long after. Loud enough that even I could hear her heartbreak echoing through the house, and I remember standing there beside the dog, feeling guilty without really understanding why. Like somehow I’d done something wrong just by being there.
Eventually, Mum called me inside.
Colt crouched down in front of me and smiled, even though sadness lingered all over his face. He kept glancing toward the staircase like part of him wanted to run upstairs after Dee, but he still tried to make me feel comfortable.
And somehow… he did.
I liked him instantly.
The house was incredible, and for the first time in my life, I remember wondering what it would be like to belong somewhere like this.
To belong with him.
When Mum finally said it was time to leave, disappointment hit me so hard it physically hurt. I didn’t want to go. I’d only just met him, and already I wanted more time. More answers. More of whatever this strange feeling was between us.
I was too shy to ask him anything, but before we left, he hugged me tightly, and I remember feeling safe for the first time in a really long while.
Mum finally told him the truth…
That I was sick.
Really sick.
And she needed his help.
Colt agreed to get tested to see if he was a match, and Mum spent the entire drive back to London almost buzzing with excitement.
“He hasn’t changed,” she kept saying softly to herself. Then she looked over at me and smiled. “That man is going to change our lives, baby boy.”
And God… was she right.
I felt sorry for Dee. She seemed lovely, and at my age, I couldn’t understand why my existence upset her so much. Now that I’m older, I get it completely.
Her husband had a child with his ex-girlfriend.
A child neither of them knew existed until Mum showed up on their doorstep and detonated their entire world.
And the worst part? It happened at the absolute worst possible time.
I know now that before Mum and I arrived at the manor, Dee and Colt had been trying to have a baby through surrogacy.
The transfer had failed just before we arrived, and Dee was devastated.
She wanted a family with Colt more than anything, only for his secret son to appear on their front doorstep like some cruel joke from the universe.
I didn’t understand any of that back then, but I do now.
And honestly? I felt like an asshole.
Even though none of it was really my fault.
That blame lay firmly in my mother’s lap, Macy McCormack. Colter Slade’s ex-girlfriend was the woman who unknowingly blew apart a marriage before it had barely begun.
After that first meeting, everything changed fast. Colt started coming to our house all the time. The second he found out about me, it was like something inside him switched on. He threw himself completely into my life.
And God, I loved him for it.
After seven years without a father, having someone care about me the way Colt did felt unreal.
Mum loved me, I never doubted that, but Colt was different.
He fussed over me constantly, checked on me every five minutes, carried me to bed when I was too exhausted to walk, and somehow always knew when I was having a bad day before I even said anything.
He made me feel safe.
More than that, he made me feel important.
For the first time in my life, we had proper food in the house. The heating stayed on. Mum wasn’t crying over bills at the kitchen table anymore because Colt quietly handled everything without making her feel ashamed about it.
He just… took care of us.
Or at least, he took care of me.
Sometimes Uncle Huxley came with him. He was quieter than Colt and more guarded, but he was still good to me. I liked him a lot, though it wasn’t the same.
What I felt for Colt was immediate.
Instant.
Like some missing piece inside me had finally clicked into place, and I worshipped him.
Everything about him seemed larger than life. He was tall, tattooed, confident, and famous. He could walk into a room and own it without even trying. And when he played guitar for the first time in front of me, I remember sitting there completely mesmerized.
That was it for me.
The moment I knew I wanted music in my veins too.
I wanted to be exactly like him.
I wanted his life.
His confidence.
His talent.
Most of all, I wanted him to stay.
Things seemed to finally be getting better after years of hospitals, sickness, and exhaustion. Then the transplant testing happened, and everything fell apart all over again.
We were at the manor when the doctor arrived with the results. Everyone gathered in the living room while I sat curled into the corner of the couch, trying to stay awake. Mum hovered beside me, kissing my forehead every thirty seconds while Colt paced the room anxiously beside Dee and Hux.
The doctor explained that neither Colt nor Hux was a compatible donor.
Mum looked crushed.
Then the doctor smiled and said Colt’s mother was a match.
My grandmother.
Suddenly, everyone cried and hugged each other because it meant I finally had a chance to survive.
I didn’t realize then that Dee and Colt had separated.
Not properly anyway.
I only learned later that Dee believed Colt should be with Mum and me because we were his ‘real family’ now. Looking back, it breaks my heart because she couldn’t have been more wrong.
But at seven, selfishness came easily.
I didn’t care about any of that.
I just wanted Colt, my dad.
Then everything exploded.
One minute, people were celebrating, and the next Colt’s voice thundered through the manor so loudly it made me jump.
I’d never heard him yell before.
Ever.
“He isn’t mine!”
The words cracked through the room like gunfire, and I remember the silence afterward most of all. The kind of silence that feels wrong.
Heavy.
Dangerous.
I didn’t understand what was happening, only that Mum had gone pale while Colt looked absolutely shattered. The doctor kept speaking quietly, but nobody seemed to hear him anymore.
Joseph, Dee’s best friend, quickly ushered me outside while Mum cried and Colt shouted inside the house. I sat on the front steps staring at the massive front doors while Joseph tried to distract me with random conversation, but I barely listened.
All I wanted was my dad.
Eventually, Mum came outside. Her makeup was ruined from crying, and her hands shook as she wrapped her arms around me, then she took me back inside.
Colt was waiting near the fireplace.
He looked completely different somehow.
Not angry anymore.
Just broken.