It was then that Dustin cried in the dark, sitting two feet from his father. Later, the two of them searched through the kitchen looking for booze. They eventually found a bottle of Prosecco that his mom had under the kitchen sink, and father and son, neither of them big drinkers, gamely polished off the entire bottle together. They drank it warm at first but later added ice, cracking jokes like they were two Real Housewives sitting poolside on a hot summer day, and later tossing the bottle down the hallway trash chute to hide the evidence.

Dustin’s father said he’d call his accountant to figure out a plan about rehab for Nicholas. Dustin made his father swear to never tell his brother or mother they were using his college fund, because Dustin had brought this idea up before, after he’d learned that Nicholas’s own fund had been depleted, and his mother interrupted him before he even got his thought out and said that Dustin’s money was for him and him alone. And if he didn’t need it for his education then he could put it toward buying his first home. “Dad, don’t feel guilty about it. We both know it’s the right thing to do. Please, let me help.” His words brought tears to his dad’s eyes again, but neither of them acknowledged it.

The next morning Dustin woke up in his room to the smell of pancakes and coffee and the surreal noise of his parents laughing. His mother was making a big breakfast to thank him and her ex-husband for staying the night. The three of them ate together, which was a rare occurrence since the divorce ten years prior, talking about everything except for the reason they now sat together. At the end of the meal, his mother announced that she needed a break from her oldest son. She didn’t want to know when Nicholas got out of jail. She didn’t want to know where he went afterward. Her heart was broken, and she needed time. Dustin and his father agreed to step up and take care of things, which had been their plan all along. Dustin wished they had been able to tell her their plan first, which would have probably alleviated at least some of her guilt in having to take a breather from mothering.