Petra set down her glass. “You fought your fights and his.”
“And then some.” Sami re-aligned his knife and fork. “Fareed never took advantage of that. Always tried to hold his ground on his own, thinking he could resolve any situation by discussing it. I admired that in him. It takes guts to argue sense with a fist coming at you.”
“And that’s when you’d step in.”
“I was the rough brother, Fareed was the sensible, kind one. Life in that all boys boarding school was far from tranquil. And home was . . .” Sami shrugged. “Well, mother didn’t exactly provide a nurturing environment and Dad was a closed book.” Sami caught his murky reflection on the knife’s surface. “I always wondered how my brother turned out the way he did. A healthy, decent, loving family man.”
“He did so because of his b
