Emily and Jack presented me with cards they had made while I was at urgent care. Jack’s said, “I’m sorry your leg is gross,” and Emily’s was a picture of two stick figures holding hands. On the taller stick figure was an angry blob that she told me was my “owie.”

Mark told the kids to head upstairs to bed and then sat down next to me on the couch, carefully avoiding my leg propped up on a cushion. He clasped his hands in front of him.

“I talked to Tim,” he said quietly.

I lifted my eyebrows and sat forward. “You went over there? I asked you to keep it quiet for now.”

He shook his head. “I’m worried. I thought he should know what’s going on.” He glanced at me, frowning. “It didn’t really go anywhere. He didn’t apologize and asked if you had paid attention to the tree roots in the backyard. ‘Personal responsibility’ was what he kept saying.”

Anger flooded through my body, and the scab on my leg throbbed. “So he’s worried we’re going to sue?”

Mark nodded slowly and then lifted his palms. “Seemed like that. You were right. He was more concerned about their liability for the accident than the fact that Liz caused it.”

“Or why she caused it. And it wasn’t an accident,” I added quickly. I adjusted the ice pack on my ankle and sat back. “I’m really worried about her, and all of us. What if this is just the beginning? What’s next?” I swallowed hard, thinking of how many times I’d said that to Mark during the last two years of my sister’s life. What’s next? What new low will she find next? Is her rock bottom infinite? What will make her stop?

Of course I knew the answer to those questions now.

Mark had remained the positive, supportive relative, while I descended into anger and hurt. I stopped answering her phone calls and blocked her text messages. I would change the subject whenever my parents brought her up, unwilling to keep carving off pieces of my soul to help someone who had no desire to save herself.

“Give it time. Maybe it was just a bad night. See how she is going forward, and talk to her when the dust has settled,” he said.

We heard a loud bang upstairs, followed by a wail from Jack. He shouted down that Emily had broken one of his Star Wars LEGO displays. Mark slapped his thighs and stood up, briefly placing a hand on my head before he went upstairs.