Paul said, “After Dana got knocked up by Luke, she tried to seduce Bram…to nail the kid as his. You’ve met my brother. Things that work on normal guys don’t work on him. Anyway, he figured it out pretty quickly. Dana had suddenly turned from a shy, religious thing to this raving maniac who just had to do it. The more she pushed, the more he knew something was off. He pressed her and she broke down. Since she absolutely refused to admit who the father was, Bram figured it was one of us. Meaning, he thought it was me.”

“He confronted you?”

“No. Bram took it like a martyr. He really does belong on the cross.”

“Did he display anger toward you?”

“Not openly.”

“So how did he find out it was Luke?”

“Must have been my guiltless attitude. Both Luke and I treated him gently during that time. Because my parents absolutely…battered him. Mostly Dad. Bram had been his golden boy until then. The son that could do no wrong. But man, did Dad change. One mistake and Doctor came that close to kicking him out of the house.” Paul pinched off a millimeter of space between his extended thumb and forefinger. “If Bram would have given him an ounce of lip, I’m sure he would have.”

“Bram suffered in silence?”

“Yes. Then one evening at dinner…God, Dad was really slamming him. How he ruined his life and dishonored himself, and his family, and had spit at God. And he was going to go to hell and all this…this shit, frankly. I couldn’t take it. I told Bram, ‘How can you let him talk to you like that? Say something!’ Of course, I was ordered to leave the table at once.”

“Did you?”

“No. Instead, I got into a screaming match with my father who proceeded to ground me for three months. Actually, it was six months, later reduced to three. I had no car privileges, no allowance, wasn’t allowed to go on any dates or to any parties…even church activities. Except chapel of course. I was ordered to go to chapel every evening and ask God’s forgiveness for disobeying my father.”

“Pretty severe.”

“Extremely. In all fairness to my parents, they were very upset. Normally, they weren’t that rough on us.”

“Pretty nice of you to risk your freedom for your brother.”

“If I had known the consequences, I would have kept my mouth shut.” He shook his head. “I finally stalked off to our room, Bram came in a minute later, thanked me for coming to his defense. Must have been something sincere in my voice, something that told him I hadn’t been the one. Because as soon as Luke walked in the room, Bram hauled off and decked him.”

Paul laughed.