“I don’t know how much you know about him, but he’s never had a lot. No father. A drug-addicted mother who didn’t look out for him or Maddox very well. He and Maddox sort of raised themselves. They were young, strong-willed boys who were starting to find trouble when they stole a car and took it for a joyride in LA. So the court sent them to New Horizons, which, as you probably know, is a correctional school not far out of town.”

“Yes…”

He combed his dark hair back with one hand, because it kept falling across his forehead into his light brown eyes. “While they were there, Maddox started dating my sister. One night, when my parents were gone and Jada was babysitting, Maddox talked her into coming to a party, so she took me with her. Tobias was there, and he was starting to experiment with drugs, I guess, as a lot of teenagers do. He was tripping on acid when he found a gun in the nightstand of the people who owned the house. Maybe nothing would’ve happened if I hadn’t been hoping to get away from the loud music in the living room so I could watch some TV. I climbed the stairs and walked into the master bedroom right after he’d found the gun and, because he was hallucinating, he thought I was some kind of alien or monster and shot me.”

Her heart jumped into her throat. “So he didn’t mean to hurt you?”

“No. He’s apologized a million times. And I know he’s sincere. Sometimes I think the regret he carries would be even more miserable than what I have to deal with. Anyway, they tried him as an adult and put him away, after that one extension, for thirteen years. He just got out last summer.”

“That’s tragic,” she said. “For everyone involved.”

“It definitely impacted my life. But Tobias has paid a high price, too—for something that isn’t any reflection on his character, especially now. That’s why I had to come. I hate seeing him continue to suffer because he’s being judged on a past that doesn’t truly represent the kind of man he is.”

So the first incident had been more of an accident, and the second had been a result of the first, since it had put him in a place where he could be jumped by dangerous men.

“That’s why he said he wasn’t going to go to Maddox’s for Christmas Eve if your mother was going to be there,” she said, finally understanding.