Tad Duncan had been a lawyer when the kids were born but had for the past several years been developing a communications software system that had started to take off. Bethany was his head of marketing; she was twenty-seven. This detail seems more appalling in retrospect, now that I’ve passed twenty-seven myself and understand how young it actually is.

“We don’t know anything yet,” Blair said.

“Kris told me she heard them on the phone,” Luke said. “Like, multiple times. You know she goes with him whenever he travels.”

Between her rebellious older daughter and her talented sons, Ann never seemed to have a moment for herself. She often drove me to practice when my mom was working, and she always packed snacks for me just as she did for her own kids. I loved her. It seemed unfathomable that Tad would leave her.

“Kris shouldn’t be telling you any of that, bud,” Blair said.

“I’m not a kid!” Luke said. “And it’s obvious anyway.”

With that, he popped back up on his skis and tipped over the cliff more quickly than he should have. It didn’t matter how well we all knew Silver Mountain, it was idiotic to plunge off like that. Luke was reckless then. He never really outgrew it.

Between Christmas and New Year’s, Tad announced to his family that he was going to be moving to Sun Valley. He’d purchased a five-bedroom house at the base of Bald Mountain, where he would now be living with the soon-to-be Mrs. Duncan, née Bethany Little. From there, the family seemed to swiftly unravel. Kristina wanted nothing to do with him. She was in her senior year of high school and took the excuse to become the wildest girl in Coeur d’Alene before she left for college the next fall. The boys sided with their mother, but their lives were turned upside down. Tad wanted them to come to Sun Valley. There was a well-funded but relatively minor ski club there, and Tad saw his opportunity to be a big fish.

I remember Penny and me hiding at the top of the stairs, listening in on a conversation between my parents and Ann that spring. Our families had been close for years, and my mom in particular adored Ann; the two of them were forever trading recipes and gardening tips.

“I know I must seem like an idiot, but I didn’t see it coming. I just never thought Tad would start fucking some twentysomething behind my back.” Penny and I exchanged a horrified smile. The grown-ups in our orbit almost never swore, so this must be serious. “I was just so busy with the boys and their skiing and trying to keep Kristina under control. This was our deal, you know? I did everything at home so that he could focus on the company. I have my degree, I could have worked. I’m so stupid.”