Prologue
Prologue
(Slade’s POV – 16 Years Old)
I pushed open the front door with half my gear still on, breath still clouding in the air from the rush home. Practice had run late, and I had spent the entire drive tapping my knee, counting the minutes. I had promised Cory we would skate on the lake tonight. I promised we would play one on one until it got too dark to see.
I wanted to keep that promise.
I chuckled. My little brother wanted to be just like me. A hockey prodigy.
The house was quiet when I stepped inside. Too quiet.
“Cory?” I called out.
No answer.
I pulled off one glove, let my stick fall against the wall, and walked deeper into the living room. The silence felt wrong. My skin prickled with unease.
“Mom?”
“Dad?”
Still nothing.
A knot formed in my stomach. I headed toward the back of the house and pushed open the door to the porch. Snow had collected in soft piles across the wooden planks. The hooks along the wall held our winter gear.
My skates were there.
Cory’s skates were not.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Cory!” I shouted, louder this time. “Mom! Dad!”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I ran down the steps and across the yard, my feet slipping in the snow as panic surged through me. The cold air burned my lungs, but I kept going. The lake came into view between the bare trees.
My chest tightened when I saw it.
A jagged hole cut through the ice.
Shards pushed up at the edges.
Dark water swirling underneath.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t hesitate.
I jumped.
The freezing water hit me like a punch to the chest. It was so cold my body seized. My mind went blank. I forced myself down, deeper into the dark, pushing through the shock and the burn in my lungs. My hands searched blindly until they brushed fabric.
Cory’s jacket.
I grabbed him and fought toward the surface, dragging him up with the last strength I had. We broke through the water, and I shoved him onto the ice, gasping for breath as the cold stole every thought I had left.
“Cory,” I whispered, pulling myself halfway out. “Wake up. Come on.”
His eyes were closed.
His skin was pale.
He didn’t move.
I pulled us to the edge of the lake and dropped down on my knees.
I pressed down on his chest, counting under my breath, my hands shaking so badly I could barely keep rhythm. My vision blurred. My breath hitched.
Behind me I heard the back door slam open.
“Slade!”
Dad’s voice cut through the air.
Mom screamed Cory’s name.
They ran toward us, but the world was tilting. The cold was pulling me down again, dragging me into the same darkness I had pulled Cory from. My hands slipped. My body dropped back onto the ice.
Dad swept Cory into his arms. Mom’s shouting had turned to screaming. Pained screams.
The last thing I saw was my brother’s face against my father’s chest.
Then.
Everything went black.
- - - - - - - - -
I jolted awake in my bed, chest heaving, sweat soaking through my shirt. My hands trembled as I pushed them through my hair.
It was the same dream again.
The same memory.
The same night that never stopped replaying no matter how much time passed.
Twelve years had passed since that night.
Cory was gone.
And I still carried the weight of it.
Every single day.
And every single night.
Every time December rolled around. The lights… the joy… seemed to pull me further into the darkness and the nightmares only got worse.
I had become one of the best hockey players in the country. A man adored by millions of people. A hero on the ice.
Those fans didn’t know the truth. They didn’t know that I was the villain in my own story and there was no escaping that fate.
The world saw the star.
They had no idea he was built on a grave.
I lay back against the pillow, staring at the ceiling, trying to steady my breathing.
Twelve years had passed since I had had a family.
Since I had lost everything that mattered to me.
I would never forgive myself for that.
If I had come home sooner, my brother would still be alive.
I had survived that night.
And I’ve been paying for it ever since.
