“You’re not,” I heard my dad say. “He is. I’m just disgusted with him.”

This was about as harsh as my father got.

“And now he wants to take the boys away? What am I going to do?”

“That makes no sense,” my mom said. “You do everything for them. How’s Tad going to even have the time?”

“Well, he has Bethany now.” Ann said her name as though it tasted bad.

“I’m sure the boys would rather be with you,” my mom said.

“You know he has a trump card. Sun Valley is one of the best mountains in the country. Not to mention all Tad’s new rich cronies who fancy themselves patrons of the sport.” She groaned.

“Skiing isn’t everything. Ann, I know they’re talented but the chances of them going pro . . .” My dad trailed off. I was a little taken aback. My parents had always been so encouraging about my skiing dreams, did they know something I didn’t? I thought uncharitably that this was because my dad had never chased the dream, had acquiesced to having a normal nine-to-five job and a life that didn’t revolve around being on the mountain. I would never do that, I told myself.

“I know. But I’m afraid they’ll resent me. Luke especially,” she said.

They moved into the den, where we could no longer hear them, and I turned to my sister.

“You don’t think they’ll really move, do you?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “I have no idea.”

I burst into tears. The thought of losing my two best friends was overwhelming. Other than Penny and my parents, I didn’t really have anyone else. I was too advanced to ski with anyone else my age. Other girls my age were getting into makeup, talking about boys, passing intricately folded notes between classes, and cuffing one another’s wrists with slap bracelets. I couldn’t imagine where I would fit in.

Penny put her arms around me. Even as a kid, I almost never cried. “Don’t worry, Katie. It will be okay. Let’s just be glad Mom and Dad aren’t like that.”

At the time, it felt like our family was charmed. From what little information I later found out about other cases like Penny’s, the women’s terrible childhoods were offered as one possible explanation of their behavior. But I think it’s a red herring, an attempt to explain the unexplainable. There is always a chance that something could have happened to Penny that I never knew about, but we had happy childhoods. I know. I was there. It’s one of the only things I can still be certain of.