Running on Empty — Don Aker

Ethan Palmer just wants the car, and he's finally saved enough money to buy it. That is, until he accidentally rams his dad's Volvo into their garage. It's not like his lawyer/politician father can't afford to pay for the damages--after all, they do have insurance--but his lecture-prone old man is all about teaching him Big Life Lessons. When he makes Ethan use his savings instead of the insurance, owning the Mustang Cobra SVT turns into an unattainable dream. Or does it? Lured by the promise of easy money, Ethan finds himself caught up in the world of online gambling, only to discover that he's exchanged one problem for another. His downward spiral intensifies when he learns the secret his dad has been hiding from him, and it takes a shocking act of violence to serve as a wakeup call for both father and son and offer a final chance to heal the growing rift between them.