Kayden Michaels has a past filled with sex, addiction, and
heartache. A past that he’s avoided sharing with the love of his life, Sophia,
and held close to his core not risking rejection.
Needing to get his addictions in check and gain control of his
life for the sake of his family, Kayden is forced to confront his past and make
amends for the path he’s walked.
Kayden must recount every
carnal act and the betrayal from those he’s loved to identify the triggers that
spur his addictions and overcome it all to be worthy of Sophia’s love – his
sole reason to exist.
Extended
Excerpt ~ Prologue
I was an addict.
Sophia didn’t know this about me when we met – when I
stole her heart.
I struggle every day with my sobriety, and Sophia is
my compass. She’s what keeps me grounded and always points me in the right
direction. She doesn’t nag or yell but smothers me in her love and understanding.
Sophia asked to hear my story, my past. She wanted to
know everything about me…what led me to her. I gave her a condensed version –
one that is closer to PG-13 compared to the NC-17 reality that I lived. No
matter how much the person you love the most, the one who is the center of your
universe asks about your past, you never give the full truth. I never want
Sophia to compare herself to any of the women or experiences that I’ve had
before her. Sophia is perfection in my eyes. No one could ever compare to her.
I’d like to say my life began again when I met
Sophia, that I was given a clean slate. Sophia met me at the point in my life
where I had given up on love. My life consisted of work and pleasure – pleasure
from the unattached sexual relationships and the booze that had filled my
nights.
When my life spiraled out of control, Sophia caught
me in her web of security and love. She is my savior, the only thing that is
true in my life. She can’t know my entire story. Who would want to know the
true story of the love of their life, the father of their child?
The thought of Sophia being with another man makes my
skin crawl and pisses me off. She’s mine, and I’d like to think that I’ve been
the only man in her life and the first one to taste her, but I know I’m lying
to myself. Ignorance is bliss, and I’d rather stay in the dark.
After our child was born, I thought it was necessary
to get help to control my drinking. I needed to make sure I never walked down
the path of self-destruction again. I had too much to lose. For the first time
in my life, there was something more important than myself or even Sophia.
There’s a tiny little life that depends on me and needs my love and adoration.
I didn’t want to go to group counseling – I’ve done
that before, and it sucked; it wasn’t more than a temporary fix. I needed
something to get to the root of my addiction and allow me to find other ways to
cope with the pressures in life besides at the bottom of a bottle. The
counselor told me to write down the major events in my life – the ones that
caused my drinking to go out of control or drove me to drink.
He said I needed to understand the cycle. What came
first – the booze or the problems? He asked me to write a journal about my
life. Everyone who I could remember that triggered my drinking, use of drugs,
and events that were caused by my addiction that had an impact on my life. I
didn’t see the use in writing it for someone else to read and analyze, but he
said I would understand it in time.
Where do I start the tangled mess that was my life?
Do I start with my first taste of booze, the first sniff of coke, or the crazy
bitches I’ve experienced? There will be bits that I leave out; things I don’t
want the world to know. I’ve included the ones that show what has molded me
into the man I am today. The ones that will fill in the gaps on my troubled
journey that Sophia and I overcame and show the depths of my depravity and
addiction before Sophia walked into my life and turned my world upside down.
I’ll start at the beginning, what led me off the path
of righteousness through my moment of self-destruction and finally salvation in
the arms of a loving woman too good to be mine.
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