For the first while, things seemed okay. Jesse would bring photos around. Caleb at his birthday. Caleb at the lake. Caleb on Jesse’s lap at Thanksgiving. Jesse loved that little boy like he was his own grandson.
Then the photos stopped.
Then Sarah stopped showing up to family things. Then Travis stopped answering Jesse’s calls. Then a year went by where the only thing we heard was that Sarah was “sick” and Caleb was “fine” and “Travis is taking care of everything.”
Jesse drove out to see them in September. Two weeks before he died.
He came back to the clubhouse that night and sat at the bar and didn’t speak for an hour. I’d never seen him like that. Pike asked him what happened. Jesse just shook his head.
Then he said, “I have to figure out what to do.”
That’s all he said. That’s all I got out of him.
Three weeks later, he was dead in his garage.
