He could fix anything with an engine. Broken people were a different story. In The Berk Legacy , Eli James is the silent, stoic protector of his family—a fortress of a man. But he wasn't born strong. He was forged in the fires of a childhood he never speaks about. Silence is a survival skill. Long before he was the patriarch, Eli was a scrawny boy in Oklahoma, trying to make himself invisible to survive Harold, his mother’s boyfriend, a guest who never went home and ruled their house with a belt and a bottle. In this essential prequel to The Berk Legacy: The Price of Perfection , we witness the evolution of the man behind the silence. From the dusty driveway where a neighbor taught him that a wrench could solve problems a fist couldn’t, to the jungles of Vietnam, and finally to the diner where a green-eyed waitress taught him he didn't have to be a weapon to be a protector. This is the story of the ghosts Eli buried so he could become the anchor his family needed. He spent a lifetime building a fortress to keep the monsters out—now, find out what it cost him to build the foundation of his family.