Chapter 1After being kicked out of the house, my mother regretted it many years later.

Six years after I cut off all contact with my parents, my adopted brother secretly reached out to my wife.

He told her my parents missed me terribly and hoped we could all be a family again before it was too late.

I touched the scar on my forehead. I got it when I was eight, the day my brother slammed a door on my hand, breaking the fingers I used to play the piano. When I tried to hit him back, my father stopped me.

My wife, unable to bear the sight of my brother’s sad, puppy-dog eyes, tried to reason with me. “It’s ancient history, honey. Just let it go.”

My daughter, clutching a new Barbie doll my parents had sent, chimed in, her voice indignant. “Daddy, I can’t live without my grandparents and my uncle! You have to make up with them! If you don’t, then I don’t want you to be my daddy anymore!”

A wave of exhaustion washed over me. I nodded slowly. “Fine.”

* * *

The moment I handed her the divorce papers, Evelyn’s face was a mask of disbelief.

“Just because I want you to make peace with your parents?”

“Yes. Just because of that.”

“What about our daughter? She’s only five. What’s going to happen to her?”

Just then, our daughter, Chloe, charged into the room like a tiny bull, slamming into my leg. Pain shot up my shin.

“You’re a monster, Daddy!” she shrieked. “Grandma and Grandpa didn’t raise you to be a monster!”

I gritted my teeth against the pain. “Who taught you to talk like that?”

Chloe looked guilty for a second, her eyes darting to my brother, Ethan, who was hiding behind the door. He’d been my father’s best friend’s son, and he’d lived with us since we were kids.

“It’s my fault, big brother!” Ethan said, his voice dripping with faux innocence, a look I had come to despise. It was the same look that had gotten me into trouble countless times. “I was telling Chloe the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and she must have picked up a bad word.”

But Evelyn and Chloe were already defending him.

“Jacob, you’re always so busy with work. You can’t blame Ethan for helping to look after Chloe.”

“Daddy, I love Uncle Ethan the most! If you’re mean to him, I don’t want you anymore!”

I hadn’t said a word, but the two of them were already leaping to his defense. I saw a flicker of triumph in Ethan’s eyes, and the disgust and hatred in my gut reached a boiling point.