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Leo?”
    “Since he was just a boy .  Since the day Mark took him in like his own son.”
    “You saw him the day his family was
killed?”
    Jack diverts his gaze from me, his hands in his lap becoming a
convenient distraction.  “Yes.  He had a bullet in his arm.  That was the first
of many injuries I treated for Leo.”
    I remember the story Leo told me of
that awful day when he was only eight years old.  Armed men showed up at his home, killing his father , who was
high-ranking on Mark’s crew , and
killing his mother.  He was shot in the arm , but Mark
showed up and saved him, taking him under his protection from that day forward
even though the truth was that Mark ordered the deaths of Leo’ s
parents.  Leo grew up living a lie with Mark, the man who did
more to hurt Leo than help him during the time up until my dad put Mark in
prison.
    “Mark did it,” I say quietly.  “He had Leo’s parents
killed.”
    Remorse and sorrow show openly on every aspect of Jack’s
face.  “I never got the truth out of Mark, but I suspected as much.”
    “Did you know what was happening
between Mark and Leo all those years?”
    “I was blind to it, or maybe in denial
of it, for a few years before I realized what was happening.  I knew Mark most of my life and could hardly believe that he would do
such horrible things to a young boy.  I confronted Leo about it when he was
twelve, but he told me to let it be.  He didn’t want me to intervene.”
    “Why would he do that?  Those were the
worst years of his life, and he just let them happen?”  I’m dumbfounded by the
thought of it.  Jack could have helped.  He could have at least talked to Mark,
worked some sense into him, done anything to stop the
slow destruction of the young boy Mark was supposed to be caring for.
    Jack seems uncomfortable, almost
reluctant to continue the conversation , but he keeps talking .   “Did Leo ever tell you about Stella?”
    I know that name, but not from a
conversation with Leo.  Stella was Mark’s daughter, the innocent girl waiting
outside her home when Mark’s enemies rammed a truck into her, killing her
instantly.  Mark’s wife Elise saw it all happen and
committed suicide only days later.
    Mark was in prison at the time.  Of
course he blamed the man who put him there for
preventing him from protecting his family.  That man was my dad, and once Mark
got out of prison , he enacted his plan for revenge: my
kidnapping and ransom to set the stage for me to choose Leo and Mark’s criminal
organization over my own family and former life, followed by Mark stealing me
away from Leo to create his own new family, to provide him an heir to his
empire.
    “Mark told me about Stella, not Leo.”
    Jack stares at me, seeming surprised by
my answer.  “Perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything, then.”
    I’ve never had the feeling that Jack
was holding back or not being truthful with me until now.  He’s the only person
I can trust in my current situation, and I need him to be honest with me.  “What
is it, Jack?  Please tell me.”
    He sighs and shifts uncomfortably on
the bed .  I fear that I’m
losing him, that he’ll get up and walk right out that door, but he turns to me
calmly instead.   “When I confronted Leo about what I
suspected Mark was doing to him and he told me stay out of it, I pressed him to
understand the very question you asked.  Why?  Why not get out when I was
giving him the opportunity?”  He pauses, lowering his voice.  “Leo wasn’t Mark’s first victim.  Before Leo came along, Stella was Mark’s
focus for abuse.  She was only two years younger than Leo, and they quickly
became close friends when Leo was brought into their home.  It didn’t take long
for Leo to realize what Mark was doing to Stella, so he did things to take the
focus away from her.  He put the bull’s-eye right on himself for Mark to fire
at, and he did.  For years he did just that, and Leo wouldn’t let me stop