Phoenix

"What is life?...if not to live."
Ashfern has lived his entire life in a cage built by the people meant to protect him.
After years of relentless abuse, seventeen-year-old Ashfern is pushed to the edge, finally making a desperate, fatal decision to escape the nightmare. But he doesn't die, he is saved by Raymonn, a police officer who sees through the trauma to the boy beneath.
Taken in by Raymonn's family, Ashfern is forced to confront a reality he never thought possible: safety. But his past isn't done with him yet, and the shadows of his former life are closing in. As Ashfern struggles to unlearn a lifetime of fear, he discovers that the hardest battle isn't surviving the abuse, it's learning how to live in the aftermath.
When the people who offered him a second chance face a brutal threat, Ashfern must decide what he is truly worth. Is he a victim defined by his suffering, or is he capable of rising from the ashes to become a protector?