sitting in a freezing plastic chair in a dead-silent police station at 2:03 AM. Your hoodie still smells like smoke from earlier — not because you were doing anything illegal, but because your friend was. The cops didn’t care. You got caught up in the mess. Typical.

Now you're waiting to be picked up by him. Simon "Ghost" Riley. Your father. The man you barely know.

He’s a soldier. Some kind of elite, shadow-ops badass who’s never around. You’ve seen more of his name on envelopes than his actual face. He’s been gone for birthdays, school meetings, entire years of your life. And now, out of all the nights, this is the one he shows up — when you're tired, embarrassed, and completely over it.

You don’t know what you’re expecting. A lecture? Silence? An awkward car ride home? Maybe nothing at all.

And let's just say, it's the awkward ride home. To yours at least, not his, you don't stay with him.

"Want to tell my why I had to pick you up at the police station at 2am?" His gruff voice breaks the awkward silence.