This gets my father’s attention. He leaps toward me and seizes my arm.

“Keep your voice down,” he says. Then he takes a breath, tries to compose himself. “Rose, there is no helping him. He’s too far gone.”

“Call…call 911. He’s still breathing!”

The hand around my upper arm squeezes tighter. “You don’t understand. I said there’s no helping him.” He releases me, rolls up his shirtsleeves, then addresses us.

“It doesn’t matter if we love, hate, or are indifferent to each other,” he says. “We’re family. We’re the fucking Yates family, and that’s more meaningful than anything you’ll ever achieve in life. Your family name.”

I glance at Cora. She’s grinning.

“We aren’t perfect,” he continues. “And when we make mistakes…we make them together.” He points to Caleb. “This is a mistake, and we can’t change it. Cora didn’t do this. We all did it.”

My voice takes on a rasp. “What?”

“This is us,” he says. “This moment. This mistake. We are all part of this. And that’s why no one will ever know about this except us.”

Caleb releases a soft moan, and it sounds so feeble I’m convinced it’s his last.

“He’s alive,” I say. “He can be—”

“No, he can’t. He’s going to die. That’s a fact, Rose.”

“But we have to call the police. It was self-defense, like she said. We can’t just—”

“We can,” my father says, cutting me off. “And we will. No. One. Knows. That’s all that matters. One rule, the rest of your life. No. One. Knows. I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but you protect your family. Above all else, family.”

This whole time, Cora has said nothing. But she loses her grin and nods her head at our father, an obedient student. He looks down at her and says, “I’ll deal with you later. What you’ve done. The jeopardy you put our family in.”

“I’m sorry, Daddy.”

“Fuck you,” he says to her, jarring me even more. “You aren’t sorry, and that’s the problem. I’ve known it for years. You’ve known it. You are incapable of ‘sorry.’ And it’s led to here. To this.”

She returns his gaze, wild-eyed in muted defiance, saying nothing.

“You two…you will listen to me.” He’s pointing now, first to Cora, then me. “This night is going to be hard, and you’re going to do every goddamn thing I tell you to do. There will be no questions. There will be no refusals. You do exactly everything I say, and if we’re lucky, we might be able to move past this. Now I’m going to ask you if you have any questions. Here’s a clue to the answer: if you ask me a question, I’m going to have a big fucking problem.” He pauses, and in the silence, I hear nothing from Caleb. “So, girls, do you have any questions?”

This is the moment my bladder releases, and warm pee runs down the insides of my thighs. I can’t help it. My entire being is nothing more than a mix of horror, confusion, and shame. I say nothing, but I do allow myself one final look at Caleb. His neck craned, his eyes angled upward, his gaze both at and beyond me. I can’t even tell if he’s still alive or not, and I’m hoping he isn’t simply because I don’t want to watch it happen. Or, worse, witness what I think my father will do if Caleb labors on. Snap his neck like a bird that’s flown into our window.