That’s why I didn’t open the envelope I got in the mail until a few minutes ago.

It was a burnable DVD with a sticky note on the front that just said “Watch this and then call me.—Rusty”. I felt like all the air was leaving the room as I put the disc in my computer and hit play. At first I didn’t understand what I was watching. It was a home movie of some kind, and it was in Aunt Karen’s house. Or I guess it was Rusty’s house now.

That’s actually what was being talked about on the video. It sounded like Rusty was recording the video with his phone and his girlfriend—Alice, not Alicia—was being given a tour of sorts. He was talking about the remodeling he was doing and how excited he was about it. At first it seemed normal enough, and I found myself missing my brother as he talked to Alice and joked with her. He sounded more like his old self with her.

But then he said he wanted to show her the basement. She seemed willing enough, but it was clear that she was expecting more than the bare room that the camera was showing. There was no sign of Harvey, but there was an area of the concrete floor that seemed rougher and more worn than the rest.

It was in the rough shape of a circle.

The view of the camera was suddenly jerked away from the room and back to Alice. Rusty was clearly excited now, and as he talked, the camera shifted again as he squatted or knelt down on the basement floor. That’s when I realized he was proposing to her.

She seemed to realize it at the same time, and her expression turned from pleasant curiosity to concerned dismay. She took a step back as she interrupted him.

“Russ, no. You need to stop this. Look, you’re a great guy, but I’m not interested in marrying you. I’m probably never going to get married at all. I thought I made that clear.”

Rusty’s voice was softer when he responded, but the hard, waiting anger coiled underneath his words made my stomach clench. “So you’re saying this is the wrong time or that you just don’t want to marry me?”

Visibly upset, Alice ran her hands through her hair and stared at the ground for a minute before looking back up, her expression sad. “Fuck. I didn’t want to do this like this. Look, we need to stop seeing each other. This isn’t working out for me and I’m just keeping you from…”

Rusty had stood back up as she spoke, and I gasped as his leg flashed into the bottom of the frame as he kicked her in the stomach and cut off her words with an audible whoosh of air. The force of the kick didn’t knock her down, but it did cause her to stumble back into the circle.