Mack Holstrom knows the road. He knows diesel smoke, broken nights, and the kind of loneliness that gets quiet enough to kill you. What he doesn't know is how to live after grief.

When Mack's wife, Stella, dies of cancer, she leaves behind more than a hole in his life, she leaves him one final request: meet with her priest once a week. Mack, a hard-edged trucker and stubborn Norse pagan, agrees... and immediately regrets it.

But the longer he sits across from Father Tom Hargrove, the more the cracks begin to show. The anger. The grief. The bottle that's become a lifeline. The wreckage he keeps pretending he can outrun.

As Mack is pulled into recovery and slowly drawn toward the Catholic faith, he finds himself faced with a terrifying truth: healing isn't something you earn. It's something you surrender to, one brutal day at a time.

A raw, gritty, and deeply human story about addiction, redemption, and learning how to come home, The Cross in the Rearview series follows Mack's journey through recovery, OCIA, Confirmation, and the slow rebuilding of a life that finally has room for grace. Along the way, Mack discovers the fierce tenderness of Marian devotion, the strength of saints like Maximilian Kolbe and Venerable Matt Talbot, and a kind of brotherhood that doesn't quit when you fall.

This is not a story about perfect people.
It's about getting back up anyway.