Justin sat there for hours, the silence unspooling like a reel of tape. He didn’t reach for a drink as his head was already swimming with all the past decisions that had led him to this moment. And despite his best effort, came a name that he had buried in the dark crevices of his mind for decades.
At twenty-one, Justin had dropped out of community college and fled his small-town life—and his violent father—for the chaos of New York. He drowned in parties, noise, and strangers’ couches, chasing distraction over direction. One night, in the blur of another rooftop party, he saw Lucy—still, quiet, luminous.