Chapter 1

The argument started over my father' s FDNY badge. It wasn't just a piece of metal, it was the one he was wearing the day he died pulling Chloe' s father, Richard, from a skyscraper fire. It was a piece of my soul.

And Chloe gave it to her ex-boyfriend, Julian, like it was a cheap souvenir.

"It was just sitting in a box, Ethan," she said, scrolling through her phone, not even looking at me. "Julian thought it was cool. It' s not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" My voice was low, tight. "Chloe, that was my father' s."

Our son, Leo, stood in the doorway. He was only seven, but he understood. He saw the look on my face. Later, I found out he went to Julian' s hotel. He asked for his grandpa' s badge back. Julian laughed at him and sent him away.

When Chloe found out, she didn' t get angry at Julian. She got angry at Leo.

"He needs to learn boundaries," she yelled, her face a mask of cold fury. "He embarrassed me. He embarrassed Julian."

That' s when she told me her plan. A "behavioral modification" camp in Utah. She' d already paid for it.

"You can' t be serious," I said, my blood running cold. "He' s seven years old, Chloe. You' re sending him to a boot camp because he wanted my father' s badge back?"

"It' s for his own good, Ethan. He needs discipline. My parents spoiled you, and now you' re spoiling him. This is what' s best."

She turned away, dismissing me. Dismissing our son.

I looked at her, this woman I married. The socialite from a Manhattan real estate empire. I was just a mechanic from Queens. Her parents, Richard and Eleanor, they saw something in me. They saw my father' s legacy. They treated me like a son.

Chloe used to see it too. She said she loved my authenticity, that I was real in a world of fakes.

Now, she was the biggest fake of them all, obsessed with her social status and a manipulative ghost from her past.

"Don' t do this," I pleaded. "Please, Chloe. Let' s just talk about this."

"It' s done," she said, her voice final. "The transport is coming in the morning. You should try to be supportive for once."

She walked out of the room, leaving me standing there, the floor feeling like it was about to give way. In that moment, watching her choose her ex-lover' s pride over our son' s well-being, I knew something was broken. Not just between us. Inside her. And I was terrified for Leo.