“What about them?”

“I’m sorry, but they hate me.”

“Remember what I told you last night about the awkwardness—”

“It isn’t awkwardness. It’s so much worse than that. I wouldn’t say anything like this if it wasn’t true and if I wasn’t afraid. But they do hate me. And…” I rub a hand up and down my arm, looking at the floor. “They force me to do things. They have forced me to do things recently. I didn’t want to do them, but they made me.”

“What kinds of things?” He hasn’t blown up yet, so that has to be a good sign. I knew this was the right thing to do. He’s the only sensible person in this house.

“One night, they forced me into… performing oral sex on Nix.” I glance up at him, wishing I could crawl into a hole, wishing he would stop looking at me the way he is because I feel so sick and dirty.

“They forced you into that?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry to have to tell you about this. I know they’re your sons, and I’m sure you don’t want to believe anything like this about them. That’s not all of it, either. It gets worse than that.”

His head snaps back a little, eyes narrowing as he scans my face. “Are you sure this isn’t some sort of misunderstanding?”

My heart sinks, but I can’t give up. Of course, that’s the first thing a parent would think. They wouldn’t want to believe the worst about their child—well, unless they were my mother. “Believe me. I’m sure. There was no room for misunderstanding.”

“You didn’t all have too much to drink, lose track of yourselves?”

“No. No, not at all. And like I told you, that’s only one example of many. But it’s constant, and I don’t know what to do about it. That’s why I had to come to you. I’m so scared of being alone in the house with them while you’re gone. Please, can you help me? I don’t know what else to do.”

He sighs, his shoulders slumping a little. “Leni, it isn’t that I don’t believe something happened to you, but I know my sons. I know they aren’t perfect, but what you’re describing… it’s all too much to believe.”

“I know it is.” This is the hardest part of all. This is the part that’s really going to kill him. “But there’s a video.”

His eyebrows lift. “Excuse me?”