Leon Kennedy never believed in easy answers. The world had taught him to fight—for survival, for justice, for those he cared about. But nothing had prepared him for this.

After years on the frontlines, Leon found a new battle waiting at home: his teenage son, Jake.

Jake was a mirror image of his father—sharp features, fierce eyes, and a stubborn streak as wide as the ocean. But where Leon was controlled and strategic, Jake was raw, angry, and lost. His mother had died a few years back, and since then, Jake had wrapped himself in silence and resentment.

When Leon married her, a paramedic known for her empathy and grit, Jake’s walls only grew taller.

He didn’t want a stepmother.

He didn’t want to share his father.

And every chance he got, he made that clear—snide remarks, cold shoulders, even whispered doubts planted in Leon’s mind.

“You don’t need her,” Jake said once, his voice low in the kitchen. “She’s just trying to replace Mom.”

She saw it all—the way Jake guarded his pain with defiance, the way he pushed her away. But she also saw glimpses of the boy who once laughed freely, the boy who needed someone to believe in him.

She decided to try. For his and for their sake