The initial search party who found Desmond saw only their mother’s burned remains. She had stayed in the house, clearing as much of the flammable material as she could away from the fireplace.

But a second group of relief workers searching the area for survivors found Conner badly burned, dehydrated, and malnourished. He was at death’s door. They flew him to Adelaide, where he spent months in a pediatric intensive care unit, then the burn unit.

Desmond cried when he read the doctor’s notes. They had expected the infant to die, but at each turn, he had defied the odds. By the time Conner was well enough to leave, Desmond had long since gone to Oklahoma to live with Orville. The doctors called the boy’s uncle, but Orville refused to take Conner. Desmond had no doubt that part of the report was true: the roughneck had been in no shape to take Desmond, even at age five; he couldn’t have cared for an infant.

Conner was remanded to the foster system. Desmond couldn’t imagine what it had been like for Conner growing up, so badly injured—physically and mentally. He imagined the would-be parents touring the facility, gazing upon the young boys and girls they might take home, averting their eyes when they came to Conner.

Desmond was surprised to learn that the boy had been placed with adoptive parents in 1995 at the age of twelve. The records stopped there. Both McClain parents were deceased by 2003. Conner had dropped out of school at age seventeen and was unmarried and lived alone.

There was only one thing left for Desmond to do.

On an overcast day in June of 2003, he parked outside Conner’s apartment building and waited, rehearsing what he would say. That morning, he saw his brother for the first time in twenty years. The sight broke his heart. Not with joy, but with sorrow. Conner McClain had long, grungy hair and wore baggy, dirty clothes. Track marks ran down his right arm. He lit a cigarette and set off on foot for his back-breaking job on the docks.

Sitting in the rental car, watching his younger brother, Desmond’s life changed. From that point forward, he dedicated himself to helping Conner turn his life around. He bought a company in Australia and directed the HR department to hire Conner. He subtly found out the young man’s strengths and weaknesses, and insisted Conner’s supervisor challenge him. He watched him grow over the course of a few years. Conner moved out of the run-down apartment and left drugs behind, but he could never chase away the demons inside of him. He was the shell of the person he wanted to be. Desmond knew that feeling all too well; more than anyone else, he understood exactly how his younger brother felt.