“A Christian socialist. But that’s not my point. My point is that incident was indicative of how my mother lived her life. She was always seeking out lost causes. She met my father when he was traveling for business. He was already married but had told her that his wife had announced her intention to abandon him and their son. So of course my mother gave up her dreams of being a college professor so she could devote herself full-time to raising someone else’s child and taking care of my dad.”

“Oh.” I look down at the light amber liquid in my cup. I think about Travis’s hardened demeanor and penchant for cruelty. “I didn’t know Travis’s mother abandoned him,” I say softly.

“Well, as it turns out, she agreed to abandon Travis,” Lander says, “in exchange for a hefty divorce settlement, and that was only after my unwitting mother had accepted the burden of my father’s proposal. I realize that a lot of women don’t think marrying a ridiculously wealthy and powerful man could possibly be a hardship, but those women don’t know my father. And then when you throw Travis into the mix?” Lander shakes his head. “Trust me, my mother had a better chance of getting God out of the Pledge of Allegiance than she did of making either one of those men happy.”

“How long did your father wait between divorcing Travis’s mom and marrying yours?”

“He married my mother one week after his divorce was finalized. I was born seven months after that. My father tells people I was premature, but I wasn’t.”

“A week,” I repeat. I’ve done a lot of research on the Gables, but I failed to dig up that detail. Of course, until recently I wouldn’t have thought any of this was relevant to my goals, but now, sitting next to Lander, I wonder. I’ve spent so much time studying what kind of people Travis and Lander are, but I hadn’t thought about what made them that way, which is odd. If anyone knows the importance of cause and effect, it’s me. My whole life has been little more than a series of reactions. Perhaps it’s the same way for Lander. Perhaps it’s the same way for everybody. “How did Travis handle the . . . the mom switch?”

Lander scoffs. “He resented the hell out of it, which I suppose is understandable. He took out his anger on my mom. My entire life I sat back and watched him shower her with abuse and scorn, and I watched her take it and repay him with nothing but affection and kindness.”

“Did your father try to smooth things over at all?”

“My father is not a peacekeeper. He has no interest in the sport.”