Indigo Sky

PROLOGUE

There comes a moment in every man's life where he looks back on the mistakes he made and wonders what would've happened if he'd made different choices.

Maybe it’s a slew of stupid moments that, at the time, seemed like trivial, incidental blips of nothing that eventually piled up, one on top of the other, until it all came tumbling down, like a tower of matchsticks. Or maybe it was just one huge, royal fuckup that steered the bastard from the well-beaten path.

For my father, I like to think it was the moment he blew a firework up in my face, disfiguring his only son—his only kid at all—for life and leaving him with one eye.

Or, you know, it could've been the day he opened his home and heart up to Nathan Manning.

No, wait, let’s rewind for a second.

Nathan Manning never would've been inside our home had my father not blown my face up.So, let's go back to the eye thing and the big fuckin' scar that left every other kid in school either disgusted by me, terrified of me, or both.

They called me a one-eyed monster. They called me Cyclops—and I was eight! I was eight fuckin' years old, and kids I used to call my friends turned their backs on me quicker than if I'd shaken them down for their lunch money every day since preschool.

But kids are brutal, and nobody knew that more than Nate. ‘Cause, see, Nate was a monster, too, but the difference between us was, he wanted to be one. It was a defense mechanism, you know? I think it's how he got himself through the bullshit he dealt with at home. Before he moved in with us, I mean. Before—

Actually, you know what? This would probably be easier if I just started from the beginning.

You have the time, right?