“He confessed because I essentially caught him red-handed.”
“How so?”
He moistened his lips nervously. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit down?”
“One hundred percent sure. Just tell me.”
He looked around helplessly, then ran his fingers through his thin hair as he sighed. “He’s been staying at my place for about a month—”
“He’s been living with you?” As far as Sophie knew, their dad had washed his hands of both of his children as soon as he’d left.
“He stays there sometimes. When he doesn’t have anywhere else to land, I guess. He’s quite the drifter. I don’t ask questions. When Lorie left me, the place got too big and lonely. I was glad to have the company—”
“Your time’s ticking,” Sophie said.
“The night of the fire, Robert came home in the middle of the night. Which is nothing out of the ordinary. But a couple days later, I noticed the clothes he’d thrown in the laundry room smelled like heavy smoke. I didn’t put the pieces together until several days later when I noticed the gas can for the lawn mower was missing from the top of my workbench in the garage.”
“So you confronted him and he confessed?” she asked doubtfully. Her brother had never been one to make things easy.
“Not exactly. But eventually I took him in, and he told the investigators everything. Listening to him, I finally saw what your mom saw all those years. Things are plugged in wrong in his head.”
That was a pretty accurate way to put it. Too bad it came two decades too late.
Sophie gritted her teeth together, unsure whether her anger was sparked more by her brother or her father right now.
“Why’d he do it?” she asked. “They said he didn’t know I was in the building.”
“Well…” Her father rubbed his chin and looked at the floor.
“The investigator said he’s jealous, but that’s just stupid.”
“He’s full of hate, Sophie. His life isn’t good, and that’s a lot his doing, but that man harbors so many bad feelings. Some are my fault, no doubt. If I could do anything to turn back time and change everything—”
“You can’t.”
“I will regret the way I treated you for the rest of my life. Your mother was right in her never-ending search for answers, for help for Robert. But because I didn’t see it, he could have killed you.”
“I have a hard time believing that would matter to you.”
His head sank to his chest, and there was no mistaking his shame.
Sophie couldn’t deny a tiny bit of gratification, but she didn’t want to think about what that said about her. She’d tried so hard to move on, to get over not just his lack of love but his total disregard for his own daughter, but obviously she still had emotional scars.
“I’m not a good person, Sophie. I’ve got nothing. Nobody. And it’s my fault completely.”
“What happened to your new family?” she asked. “When I called after Mom died, you told me you couldn’t help me because your new wife was pregnant and wouldn’t understand.”
“Lorie probably would’ve understood if I’d helped you. She was a much better person than me.”
“Did she die?”
“She divorced me. Rightfully so.” He straightened, as if summoning the last bit of dignity he possessed. “I’m not here for your sympathy. I just wanted to tell you that what Robert did to you … it chills me to the bone. I’m ashamed that it took such an irrevocable action on his part for me to see the truth. And again, I’m sorry.”
“So what do you want from me exactly?” she asked.
He studied her for so long she became antsy. Finally, he shook his head. “Just wanted you to know I’m genuinely sorry.” There was nothing in his stance or his face that said he had an ulterior motive, and he looked so empty, so beaten down that she almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“I want nothing for you but happiness,” he said. He glanced around the condo again. “But I suspect maybe you don’t have that yet, otherwise you wouldn’t be alone on Thanksgiving, like me.”
