He broke his neck when or as he fell. We got there in time to help with Poppa's bleeding. Sandy Mom left with him in the ambulance while the police qu...stioned Gretchen and me. Gretchen is really good at martial arts. We went to the hospital to sit with him along with Poppa's real children. Mack was Poppa's surgeon and he is now going to marry Gretchen. It was startling to see my roomie grab romance with him so suddenly."Saturday night was Poppa's birthday and Mack proposed to Gretchen. You know. " My God, Kira ... don't tell me you ... tasted it..."Kira shrugged, "it's not bad..."I shuddered, trying to keep the images from flooding into my brain. I stammered several words, trying to state a coherent thought, found myself unable to do so.Kira finally said weakly, "are you mad at me, Mom?" Kira, I..." I almost said that I was, but I found that not to be the whole truth. "I don't know ... No ... No, I'm not mad. I ... I've always told you and your brother to express yourselves ... freely,. ” They had published arrest mug shots of the hacked-up trio; they were not too out-of-date. “However, the pictures did not show the guy who met me at the mall and started the whole party going. I was confused about that.”That got my attention. “Are you sure about that? I know who was there.”“Yes I’m sure. Look, all three guys in the paper were real ugly, so I never would have talked to them. Plus, the one with the lip ring? The picture in the paper showed a hole on the right, not at the left. “Well ... he slapped me. Not hard, but enough to hurt.”Craig leaned forward, placing his hand on hers. “Are you ok?”“Yeah. It was nothing, really. Just his way of keeping things in line.”“That sort of thing is never nothing,” Craig fired back angrily. “The single most cowardly thing a man can do is hit a woman. Period.”“It’s not like I can do anything about it. No witnesses, no proof, not even any physical marks on me. Besides, he’s rich and powerful; his connections would protect him from any.