Chapter 1
Tim Riggins was sitting at his kitchen table, eating a grilled cheese sandwich and drinking a beer, when someone walked in the front door. Tim didn't turn around and, assuming it was Billy, he said:
"You're back early. Thought you wouldn't be back fro hours." When he heard no reply, he turned around, frowning. "Billy?" Before he could see who it was, he was hit hard by a punch to the jaw. He was completely unprepared for this and cried out in pain, falling to the fall with a crash. It took him a second to recover but when he did, he looked up and gasped as he recognized the man standing above him.
"Dad?" he whispered in disbelief. His father stood over him with a bottle of beer in his hand. Still in shock, Tim scrambled to his feet before his father could get another blow in. "I thought I told you I didn't want you here!" he reminded, angrily.
"You can't kick me out!" Walt Riggins yelled, throwing his bottle at Tim's head with no warning. Tim ducked at the last moment as his father screamed: "This is my house! You can't kick me out of my own house!"
"This is not your house!" Tim roared back. "It never was your house and it will never be your house! Get out!" Walt had enough. He ran at Tim, knocking him over. While Tim was lying on the floor, winded from the fall, his father brought his foot down hard on Tim's chest. Time screamed in pain as he felt his ribs break. He wanted to get up and fight his dad, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He was too weak and in too much pain. His dad pulled him to his feet and, holding him by the collar of his shirt, slammed him against a wall and held him there, face to face.
"This is my house, boy!" he snarled at Tim. "I will live here, whether you like it or not." And with that, he threw Tim onto the floor, kicked him hard in the stomach, then grabbed an ashtray from the table and brought it down hard on the side of Tim's head. Pain shot through Tim's skull and everything went black as he passed out on the cold, hard floor.
