Chapter 12
Brooke faced no charges for kicking Gary.
Video and witness evidence supported that she intervened while Gary was advancing with the belt after attacking Ethan.
The prosecutor treated it as defense of another and self-defense.
That did not mean Brooke felt fine.
For weeks she replayed the moment.
“What if he hit his head?”
Claire answered:
“He didn’t.”
“What if he had?”
“That would have been investigated.”
Brooke hated how calm the answer was.
“I wanted to hurt him.”
Claire did not lie to her.
“I know.”
“Does that make me like Dad?”
Dominic heard about that question later.
He asked permission through the therapist before discussing it with Brooke.
She agreed.
They sat in a neutral office.
No bodyguards inside.
Dominic said:
“You are not me because you got angry.”
Brooke crossed her arms.
“I kicked him.”
“To stop him.”
“I also wanted him to suffer.”
Dominic nodded.
“Those can both be true.”
She looked at him.
“Did you used to tell yourself that?”
He understood immediately.
That violence was necessary.
That anger made it righteous.
That protecting family excused everything afterward.
“Yes.”
Brooke’s expression changed.
“I don’t want that.”
“Then don’t build a life where violence solves your identity.”
That was the most honest parenting Dominic had ever done.
Then Brooke asked:
“Are you still doing crimes?”
His attorney would have hated the question.
Dominic answered carefully.
“I am still under investigation for things that have nothing to do with Gary.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
He sighed.
“My life is not clean.”
Brooke looked away.
There was the emotional conflict that would survive every court order.
Dominic had arrived when she needed him.
He had controlled himself.
He had called police.
He had not retaliated.
But Brooke could not separate that version of her father from the man whose reputation Gary used as raw material.
Dominic’s criminal life remained real.
No twist erased it.
No abusive stepfather turned him into a saint.
May you like
He understood that now.
Maybe too late.
