by T.L. Duncan
Stephen Radcliffe had built an empire-
until one moment of black ice shattered everything.
A catastrophic crash leaves him fighting for breath, for mobility, and for the pieces of a life that no longer fits. Abandoned at his darkest hour and stripped of the identity he once wore like armor, Stephen begins a long and brutal climb back-not to who he was, but to who he must become.
With the steadfast support of a few who refused to walk away, and the unexpected guidance of Tessa Holt-Shaw and the sanctuary she leads, Stephen steps into a world shaped not by power or status, but by resilience, truth, and the slow reconstruction of a man who refuses to stay broken.
As he learns to stand again-physically and emotionally-Stephen discovers The Haven, a place where scars are not hidden and strength is measured by survival. There, among others rebuilding their lives, he finds purpose... and possibility.
And when a quiet, sharp-eyed woman with her own hidden wounds crosses his path, Stephen feels something he thought he had lost forever:
A future worth reaching for.
This is the story of the year that remade him-
the fall, the fight, and the first spark of a life that will one day lead him through the doors of Always Manor.