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struggle. In addition, Bryan had a gash on his right cheek made by her fingernails.
    To top it off, a witness, a neighbor, said she’d seen Bryan and Megan’s grandmother arguing several times. This witness said under oath that the young man had shoved the woman very roughly in the drivewaynot two days before her death. As to why he would push Megan’s grandmother or what they were arguing about so strenuously remained a mystery to this day.
    “Are you worried Bryan is next?” Megan asked.
    Alec looked at her. That was exactly what he was worried about.
    She looked away. “I can’t do all this. Our son is dead. I’ve had enough pain,” she said.
    His head jerked up at her. He wasn’t sure he had heard her correctly. “Megan?” he said tremulously.
    “Our son was stillborn. There was a heart defect. He never had a chance. I thought you should know.”
    It felt like a punch, as if someone had hit him hard in the gut expelling all of his air. There just didn’t seem to be enough air in the room for him to find another breath. You never told me, he wanted to yell at her. Why didn’t you tell me? Why couldn’t I know this?
    “What…happened?” he asked.
    “I went to live with my godmother in Baltimore and it happened there. The baby was a boy. In my mind I’ve always called him Jack. After my father.”
    He said, “There was nothing the doctors could do?”
    Megan shook her head.
    “Megan.” He looked into her eyes where a tear welled in her left eye and another wandered down her cheek. She brushed angrily at them with her fists. He wanted to go to her, hold her in his arms and never let her go.
    I’ve had enough pain. That’s what she had said.She had lost her parents, his own brother had killed her grandmother and her son had died.
    “Megan,” he said. “I’m so very sorry.”
    How could he have done what he did to her? Oh Megan, Megan will you ever forgive me for putting my family, my brother, ahead of you and the love we had?

SIX
    H is son had died.
    For twenty years he had prayed daily for a child who didn’t exist. But was what she did in not telling him any worse than what he did? Because when all the craziness happened, he had chosen his brother, his family, over Megan.
    Alec remembered when his brother had come home on the night her grandmother died. He had been agitated, full of wild energy. He couldn’t settle down and kept running his left hand over a scratch on his cheek.
    Alec had demanded, “What did you do to yourself? What happened?”
    “Nothing. It’s nothing. I fell. Let’s go shoot some pool.”
    “I’m going to Meggie’s.”
    “No. No you’re not. You can’t. Not now. You’re going to come with me.” He grabbed Alec quite roughly and Alec shook off his grasp. “What’s the matter with you?”
    Alec began to be afraid. This was the old Bryan. The angry Bryan, not the likable Bryan he showed to the world. This was the Bryan who would go stomping through the house shoving his foot through the wall. This was the Bryan who his parents couldn’t control, the Bryan his mother cried over. He decided to go with Bryan that night. He needed to placate him. If Bryan’s old demons were back, Alec needed to protect him. But even with these outbursts, no one could quite believe that Bryan would hurt an elderly woman, would actually commit murder. In the ensuing years Alec had wondered at his mother’s denial, his father’s preoccupation when it happened.
    It fell on Alec, the oldest brother to protect the youngest son. No one told him to do this, not his parents, not his teachers, it was just something he took on himself.
    And he still did.
    The following morning he’d learned that Megan’s grandmother was in the hospital. She had fallen down the basement steps and broken her neck. She died on Valentine’s Day, the day he and Megan were to be married.
    After Megan left his office, Alec sat at his quiet desk with the door closed and put a hand to his forehead to quell the