Page 1 of When Sky Breaks

prologue

SKY

THEN

Rain paints the earth for three days following the moment my heart broke.

Fierce strokes batter against my bedroom window, mirroring my emotional state and its rising desperation.

My chest aches in a way I never experienced, even with all the trauma and tragedy I endured as a child. Not even the strike of my father’s fist hurt as severely as August hurt me.

He killed my baby brother.

And it was Trek’s idea.

Whether it was misguided vengeance or some moral compass they forged on their own, they took it into their hands to decimate my life.

Numb, I don’t feel the tears splashing onto my arms, my hands, or trailing down between my fingers. The trees outside my window blur as thunder coils and rolls through the sky.

Even the heavens are upset.

By day four, the pain and sadness morphs into anger, curling like a snake in my belly, primed to strike at any provocation.

How could they do this to me?

For one measly year, August was my steady rock in the ocean, anchoring me whenever I needed him. Nine-year-old me clung to his kindness—his confidence that everything would be okay.

Then August made a rash decision, irrevocably shifting my entire life. For far too long, he left me wondering what I’d done to earn his lack of attention. He ignored me, pretended I didn’t exist. But like magnets we collided once again, a trajectory even gravity couldn’t pull apart.

However, the truth always comes out, and it didn’t set me free.

My heart’s tangled in so many knots I don’t know where one ends and the other begins. A war wages, the pendulum swinging one way and back again.

I hate him.

I love him.

Screw him.

I miss him.

I need him.

Fuck him.

Why, August, why?

* * *

“Sky, will you please talk to me?” The muffled plea outside the door startles me and I clutch my blanket even tighter.

“Go away,” I croak.

Ignoring Trek has been challenging. Foster senses something’s wrong, but answering his questions honestly will only drive a wedge between him and Trek. As much as I hate my brother, I can’t take Foster away from his only son.

I can’t do what he did to me.

“I’m so sorry. Please let me make this right.”

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