“Life is too darned short. Too darned short. I’m a year younger than your father and it is not lost on me that I’m next. So, I’ve decided that my kids are gonna enjoy me and what I can give them while I can watch. Jill and Laura kicked in a little but most of this is from me. This means you won’t get a big inheritance but you weren’t going to get that anyway. It also means I can see my grandsons lazing around on nice furniture in a decent place and I know you don’t think that’s important, but I do. That’s what I want and that’s what I’m going to have.”

She stopped speaking and when no one broke the silence she continued but did it quieter. However, the words she delivered next packed an even bigger punch.

“My girl endured a nightmare,” she said.

My body got tense, Brock’s eyes sliced to his sister, to me then back to his mother when she kept speaking.

“I know you pulled in every favor owed to you and I know you ended up owing more to make sure that man paid for what he did to my girl. I saw what that did to her and I saw it eat at you, you and my other babies. But you were the only one in the position to do something about it and you didn’t rest until that was done for her. I watched my son exhaust himself to make it so his sister could have some peace after that nightmare. And if Laura and I want to say thank you for it then, Slim, you’re damn well going to let us say thank you and keep your mouth shut about it.”

These words, regrettably, had as profound an effect on me, learning this about Brock, as they had on the familial combatants in the living room.

I tried to pull myself together, promptly failed, began to lose it, and found my feet rushing out of the kitchen, down the short flight of stairs with my mouth mumbling a trembling, “Excuse me,” as I raced to the other flight, up, into, and through Brock’s bedroom to his bathroom where I closed the door.

I pressed my back against the wall, slid down, shoved my face in my knees, and burst into tears.

I would learn later that Brock had not shared my ordeal with his family. And considering my dramatic reaction, even though Brock was in that bathroom with me about a nanosecond after my ass hit the floor, his mom and sisters were so worried, they didn’t leave until after Brock calmed me down and left me curled on his bed while he went down to explain and get them gone.