“But if I could cut my failure out, would there be anything left of me? I was a man born to be lonely. Maybe my first mistake had been trying to live my life. Maybe it would have been better if I was nothing but a memory, a chewed-off curse and a no-good man who’d run out on his woman and his child. What did that say about someone, that their life might be better if they’d never been a part of it at all?”