Chapter 177

KING Screwing my eyes closed, I hope that when I open them again I will have imagined what I just saw. That it won’t be her name flashing on the screen of my cell phone. It’s so unlike her to call me, even when I go no contact for months at a time. I open one eye and peer at the vibrating phone. Unfortunately for me, it was no mirage. I blow out a deep breath and answer the call. “Hello, Mother.” “Oh, so you are alive after all, Kyngston. I can’t remember the last time we had a phone call. A visit?” Disdain drips from her tone. I roll my neck, my eyes trained on the man across the street. Indigo Bernard—“Indy” to his friends. “That ungrateful little cunt” to his father. He leans against the red brick wall of the disused library building, his hands shoved in the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt and a cap pulled low over his face, like that will stop him from being recognized. Stupid kid. “You missed your father’s award ceremony,” she says. “Yeah, sorry about that.” I lie with ease. Watch