“Look,” Rock continued, “I’m not in her shoes, but I do know what it’s like to be thrust into a situation over which you have no control. I’m not going to lie to you and say I’m completely over all of it, but I tell you. The big sky of Montana did a lot to heal me. I had to let it go and accept that I couldn’t save her. I’d tried, but I couldn’t. He would never let me. Being away from all this dysfunction did a lot to heal me. Why do you think I was so damned angry when the bastard made me come back here to run his company? And if I didn’t, all of you would pay? What the fuck kind of thing is that to do to your kid?” He shook his head.

“We were all surprised by it,” Reid said, “and frankly, now I’m even more confused. If you truly tried to do him in—”

“I was fourteen. I was hotheaded. I never would have been successful, in retrospect. But damn, there are times I still wish I had been. All of you could have been spared what you went through.”

“We didn’t go through what Riley went through,” I said.

“No,” Reid agreed, “we didn’t. He didn’t touch us sexually. But we did go through a lot. You, not as much, Roy, because you kept to yourself. But he used me for a punching bag on a regular basis. I was the target once you left, Rock.”

“I’m sorry,” Rock said.

“You were fourteen, like you said. You didn’t think it through. But that was the end result.”

“I got whaled on my fair share,” I said. “I won’t pretend he was as hard on me as he was on you, Reid, but it’s not like I got off scot-free.”

I well remembered taking the insufferable beatings from my father.

“How long did the physical abuse go on?” Rock asked.

“Until we were big enough to stop it,” Reid replied.

Silence.

For the first time in my life, sitting here with Rock and Reid, I truly felt like we were brothers. Brothers that went beyond DNA. Brothers who understood each other. Brothers of the soul.

We were all completely different people, but we were connected by more than our blood.

“It’s pretty clear,” Reid said, “why Riley disappears every now and again.”

“Most interesting is that she did the disappearing act before our father was murdered,” Rock said. “Was he around when she wasn’t?”

Reid gulped audibly.

Was he?

I looked to Reid. “I stayed away from him, and I was never in the office. I have no idea if he was around when she wasn’t.”