Prologue

 

Maddox Holmes

 

Six years ago…

 

Most birthdays are the same old shit. They come and go without you feeling any differently than the day before, despite being an entire year older.

My fifteenth birthday on the other hand was a game changer, and not just because I was going to get my learner’s permit.

“Good luck. I’m sure you’ll do great,” my mother says with a quick hug before she shoves a manila folder toward my chest. “Everything you need is in here. Just hand the whole thing over to the officer.”

“Okay, Mom.” I take the folder from her and follow the DMV official down the hall to her small, messy office.

“Have a seat so we can finish up your paperwork, then get you started on your written exam.”

“Sure,” I happily agree before I plop my ass down in the chair across from her desk.

“Do you have your two proofs of identification and proof of residency?”

“Yep, got that all right here,” I say before I squeeze the metal clasp to open the folder and start pulling out the documents my mom put together for me. I grab the small white and blue piece of paper first. “Here’s my social security card.”

Then, I go for the thickest piece of paper, my birth certificate. Since I’ve never actually seen it before, I lower my eyes to look it over while the agent scans my social security card. It’s pretty cool seeing today’s date on there, just fifteen years ago…

“Who the fuck is Deacon Fury?” I exclaim when I see the unfamiliar and unusual name.

“Excuse me?” the DMV agent asks with an arched eyebrow.

“Sorry, nothing,” I tell her before reading the man’s name again, then the title underneath that says, “Child’s Father.”

I swear it feels like the tiny room starts to spin around me.  My father’s name, the man who has raised me for the past fifteen years, even if he did a shitty job most of the time, is Todd Holmes.

“Do you have your birth certificate?” the agent asks, snapping me out of my vertigo.

“Ah, yeah. Here.” I hold the paper out to her.

“Hmm,” she says when she reads it. “These have two different names.”

“What?” I ask.

“Do you have any other paperwork?”

“I…I dunno,” I state, while staring at her in confusion. “Here.” I offer her the entire folder, since I can’t seem to do much more than blink at the moment.

“Ah, here’s your Change of Name form.”

“My what?” I ask.

“Change of name,” she says, holding up the documents in her hand. “Your parents changed your name from Maddox Fury to Maddox Holmes when you were just a few weeks old.”

When my jaw falls open, she adds, “You didn’t know that?”

I shake my head because the ability to speak has left me.

My parents changed my name?

And my father is…not my father?

What kind of alternate universe did I step into? Is she pranking me right now?

“Could I…could I see those again?” I ask, snatching the paperwork from her hand instead of waiting for her response.

“Are you okay?” the officer asks while I read over the official Change of Name form that has everything she just said written out. I’m not Maddox Holmes. I was born Maddox fucking Fury.

“Should we do this another day?” she asks, while I continue staring at the words as if expecting them to suddenly shift around on the page and make more sense.

“Ah, yeah. I’ll, um, I’ll come back,” I tell her as I get up from my chair, still holding the form, and start toward the door.

“Wait! Here are your other documents,” she says.

I take them from her, then sit down in the hallway outside of her door and reread them a hundred times. My emotions switch from confusion, to anger at my mother for not telling me, to…relief. I’m relieved that Todd is not my dad, he’s just asshole Todd. We’re not related, which is sort of a miracle, because deep down, I’ve never liked him. As for Todd, well, even when I was just a kid, I thought he hated me. I’m starting to realize that he really did. He hates me because I’m not his son, but he’s had to pretend to give a shit about me for fifteen fucking years.

Being free of him feels great. Only now, there’s this gaping hole inside me where that asshole used to be, and I don’t have any clue who belongs in it other than his name—Deacon Fury.

Deacon. He sounds like a badass, much more so than Todd. Fucking Todd. I never met anyone with that name that I liked. My father—no, my stepfather—completely ruined the name.

“You can’t sit here,” a guy in a wrinkled suit and combover says to me.

“Okay, I’m going,” I reply before I shove all the documents inside the envelope and get to my feet, ready to finally face my mother and get some damn answers.

“How did it go?” she asks with a smile when she stands up in the chair and comes over to meet me.

“I didn’t take the test,” I tell her.

“Well, why not?”

“Because there was some confusion over who the hell I am!” I yell at her.

“Wh-what are you talking about?” she asks, her eyes cutting around the crowded waiting room, probably searching for any of her uppity friends who may have overheard my outburst.

“Who the fuck is Deacon? And why didn’t you tell me he’s my father?” I shout at her, not caring who hears.

“Maddox!” my mother hisses at me before she grabs me by my elbow and leads me out of the office. On the sidewalk out front, she stops and then has the nerve to tell me, “It doesn’t matter.”

I blink at her in disbelief at her brush-off before I repeat those same words aloud. “It doesn’t matter? It doesn’t matter who my father is? Maybe not to you, but it matters a whole fucking lot to me, Mom!”

“Maddox, calm down and watch your language! This is not the time nor the place—”

“It’s not?” I interrupt to ask. “Then when is a good time and place? You’ve had fifteen fucking years to tell me, and you haven’t found your moment yet?”

“I’m sorry, okay?” she says as her prim and proper posture starts to deflate.

“Who is Deacon? Does he even know that I exist?” I ask, since it’s the first I’ve heard of him.

My mother shakes her head and then crosses her arms over her chest. “I never told him because we knew it would only cause problems…”

“We?” I ask. “You mean you and Todd?”

“Yes. You have to put yourself in his shoes. Your father and I met while I was pregnant. Todd married me right after you were born. He agreed to raise you as his son but didn’t want to deal with having another man in our life…”

“He’s not my father!” I shout at her. “And you kept my real father from me to make Todd happy? What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you even know where this other man is so that I can find him and tell him that I’m his son?”

She looks away before she answers so softly I almost miss it. “He’s dead.”

“What?” I ask as a heavy boulder settles into my gut.

“If I knew he was sick, I would’ve told you. He died of lung cancer.”

“Would you have really told me, Mom? Or would you have kept on lying to me every fucking day?” I bark at her, still not entirely sure if I believe her when she says he’s dead. “When? When did he die? Before I was born?” I ask, wanting more details. Deserving more details. I deserve to know every fucking thing about the man who makes up half of me.

“A year or so ago,” she responds, which only floors me even more

“So, I missed meeting my father by a year? Fourteen years, you could’ve told us both and you didn’t, so now I’ll never meet him! How could you do this to me?”

“I’m sorry, Maddox. We did what we thought was best…”

“No,” I say, cutting her off. “You did what Todd thought was best for him, not me! He’s always hated my guts and I guess now I know why. He made me think I wasn’t ever good enough for him because I’m nothing but a reminder of another man you were with before him! I’ve never been his son and I never will be!”

The anger I’ve made myself keep bottled up inside me for years chooses that moment to burst free. No, it’s more than anger, it’s pure rage. Fucking Todd is about to get a shitload of payback by way of my fists pounding into his face.

Screw him, his money and his life. I’d rather have nothing and the truth than all the money in the world and living a lie.