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"Their relationship wasn’t great before that, but it got worse afterward Luke had soDalton He knew it’d further crush Dalton if he realized his older brother knew about the abuse And since Dalton had stood up to Casper that day, in Dalton’s ured Dalton deserved to think he was strong enough to fight back, so he couldn’t ever bring it up with him or anyone else"

"But Luke told you?"

"Yes And he made me promise that it stayed just between us Luke always felt it was his job to look out for you guys To make sure Casper couldn’t destroy the love you had for each other and the solidarity Luke had tried so hard to build between the four of you"

Brandt rested his forehead on Jessie’s shoulder and fell apart

When he could breathe without it hurting, when he didn’t have any tears left, she kissed hih for both of the tired of all this, Jess"

"I know, baby Coet you in bed"

Once they were in their bedrooainst his like it wasin lad that Luke didn’t have to shoulder that burden alone I’rateful he had you to talk to about it Thank you"

After a few moments, she said, "You don’t talk about Luke withabout him with your brothers He deserves to be remembered and missed"

"Yes, he does"

"You and Tell and Dalton…you will get through this"

Meanwhile, just up the road, Tell sat in the driveway in front of his house for a long tiia had left the light on in the living rooood because he planned to drink a helluva lot of whiskey Then he could bla on booze

He shucked his coat and kicked off his boots He headed directly to the liquor cabinet, pulling out the bottle of Koltiska that Brandt had given hi his baby brother that day Dalton had been a part of da somehow for hilass; he just chugged straight from the bottle

How the fuck could Tell ever look at his father again with anything except disgust? With this…Casper had gone beyond alcoholic asshole unhappy with his lot in life and taking it out on everyone around hi psychopath An evilpuppet master An evil sonuvabitch

Casper McKay had pitted his sons against each other He wreaked havoc with his own brothers and caused a rift in the family that’d taken years to repair He verbally abused his wife All of those things were bad by theo Fuck that forgive and forget mindset Fuck that honor thy father tenet

There was no doubt in Tell’s mind that Dalton was Casper’s kid No doubt If Dalton had spoken to their mother, he would’ve learned firsthand that Joan McKay hadn’t been unfaithful Yes, she’d left Casper once She’d gone to stay with her family in Nebraska But her aunt and uncle had convinced her thatcommitment in the eyes of God and advised her to return to her husband and work it out So she had

Tell had accidentally overheard that conversation between his ht last year when he’d been up feeding Jackson They’d talked about their struggles with being e than to stay in it How long it’d taken to ht of Jackson and got that ware of love How could a father do to his own child what Casper had done to Dalton? Plant the seeds that his son wasn’t really his son and watch that kid cut himself off from his entire family?

Because he could Because Casper knew Dalton wouldn’t tell anyone Just like he hadn’t told anyone about the years of physical abuse he’d suffered at the hands of their father

Fury boiled through Tell like hot lava

What a fucked up mess

The booze hit him hard He shoved the bottle out of reach and cradled his head in his hands If he felt this lost and miserable for Dalton, how had Dalton felt the last three years?

After Dalton had first left, Tell had reached out to hiotten easier to put off uilt, he’d quickly squashed it with the self-righteous reminder that the phone lines ran both ways

Dalton had shut hi let hi excuse of a hu as he did in that moment

The floorboard creaked behind him "Tell?"

He was too choked up to respond

"Sweetheart, are you okay?"

He shook his head

"What’s wrong?"

"Everything," he said hoarsely