In a million years, I'd never expected to hear him utter those words. I drew away from him like he had the plague, scrambling back on the couch until I was as far as I could get and still be on it. He looked at me helplessly, realizing our relationship had changed forever.

"No!" I shouted. "No, no, no, no, no! You did those things to my mother? And you married him?" I said to her. "You married your rapist?"

The sins of the fathers visited tenfold upon the children. Suddenly, the reason he'd uttered those words were abundantly clear.

"Let me explain, Brooke. You need to hear the rest,"...