Cruel Summer || An Eminem Fanfiction

Madison Callahan was supposed to be on her honeymoon, instead, she's managing someone else's wedding.

Three weeks ago, she walked down the aisle thinking it was the happiest day of her life, but what happened next shattered everything.

So she ran, packed up her life, and moved to Detroit.

Now she's crashing at her brother's place, trying to pretend she's fine while living under the watchful eye of a professional hockey player, a defence man for the Detroit Wings, who takes big brother duty way too seriously.

She didn't plan to get pulled into coordinating the high profile wedding of Hailie Jade when her boss got sick, holding everything together while barely keeping herself upright.

She doesn't want attention.
She doesn't want pity.
She just wants to get the job done.

Marshall Mathers is on top of the world, successful, sober, sharp eyed, completely unpredictable.

He's also the father of the bride, almost twenty years older, and the last person Madison expects to be paying attention to her.

But he sees her.

He sees the cracks she's trying to hide. The pain she won't talk about. And for reasons she can't explain, he doesn't look away.

They were shaped by different lives, but broken in ways they both recognize.
She's country backroads and fresh wounds.
He's fame and proof that healing doesn't always look like peace.But something about him disarms her. And something about her makes him stay longer than he should.

She didn't come here looking for anything and he's never been good at playing it safe.

But once they collide, nothing stays simple.

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Cruel Summer is a grounded, emotionally tense opposites-catch fire story about heartbreak, survival, and the kind of man who sees straight through the mask.

Set in 2024 against the backdrop of Hailie Jade's wedding, it's a slow burn with sharp edges, stolen moments, and the quiet chaos of two people who weren't supposed to find each other, but did.

And now they can't look away.