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The older man paled and Rylan knew Cameron hit the nail on the head. He made one desperate plea to Rylan.

“We’re losing the house,” he said in a defeated tone, “I need the money to pay off the loan.”

Rylan scoffed at the obvious lie. “I know mom paid off the house months before she died. She told me. But if you’ve taken out another mortgage on the house, that’s your problem.”

“Or you can do what Rylan has been doing for years. Get a job and pay off your debts. He doesn’t owe you a thing,” Cameron said.

“You… you’ll leave me and Declan homeless?”

Rylan glanced at Declan, who shook his head and gave him a small smile, letting him know everything his father said was a lie.

“Yes.”

His father reared back as if Rylan had hit him and looked as though he would retaliate, but Cameron’s growl had him falter.

“Touch one hair on his head and I will fucking end you.”

“Fuck off, both of you.” And with that, his father stalked off.

There was a long pause and Rylan sagged against Cameron, his body shaking from the confrontation he never wanted.

“Man, you’re fucking scary when you glare like that,” Declan said.

Rylan smiled at his brother and it widened when Cameron relaxed next to him. Although Declan had never hurt him and deflected his dad’s attention away from him when he was at home, he’d never attempted to get to know him. Rylan was always his annoying younger brother. But now he had distance and hindsight, Rylan never made the effort either.

“How are you doing?” Declan asked.

“I’m okay. How did you find out about it?”

“Tristan called and asked me to be a character witness. When I asked him why, he told me you and he had a run in and after you tried to strike him, he beat you up. Then I remembered his anger when you moved out and it made little sense. I contacted the Denver police, and they showed me the video of the entire incident. Rylan, I didn’t know of Tristan’s obsession with you. If I did, I would have never stayed friends with him,” Declan said.

“I know, Declan. I know you wouldn’t, and I didn’t tell you how bad it had gotten.”

“What did you tell his lawyer?” Cameron asked.

“I told him to fuck off and hung up on him when he wanted to put Tristan on the phone.”

A lightbulb went off in Rylan’s head. “That’s why he wanted the plea.”

“I believe so. Yeah, when Tristan couldn’t get a hold of me, he called the house. He gave dad a bullshit story and gave him your address. I followed him here after he called and told me he wanted to confront you. I couldn’t stop him and I planned to step in if you needed it, but you handled him well, little brother.”

“Thanks. Is Dad losing the house?”

Declan scoffed. “He’s close to it. He re-mortgaged the house several years ago. I found a letter from the bank in his desk stating he owes back payments. He told me he lost his job a couple months back and stopped making payments.”

“What about you? What are you going to do if dad loses the house?”

“I moved out a couple weeks after you. I live with my girlfriend near campus and work construction. I make a great living.”

“You don’t—”

“No, I stopped believing his bullshit a while ago. While I didn’t know about him taking out loans in our names or our inheritance, I knew about his gambling problem and after asking me over and over again for a loan, I’m done with him.”

Rylan nodded, surprised by the hardness in Declan’s voice as he spoke of their father.

“I would like another chance to know you again, if you can forgive me for being such a shitty brother?”

Without thinking about it, Rylan stepped forward and hugged Declan, heaving out a sigh when Declan hugged him back. When he stepped back, Cameron introduced himself.