"She's going to try to take up where I left off. She's going to lead her life for someone else instead of for herself." Scotty looked away. "The same way you did. The same way I did."
Scotty sat down on the couch, defeated. "We can't keep going on like this, little brother. The heat is on us all." He didn't know how to save them. He didn't know what to do.
Phonso placed his beer on a cocktail table already crowded with empty beer bottles.
"I know Scotty. I was waiting for you to figure it out. When Vanessa told you to give up the life and you did, I knew it would just be a matter of time before you realized that we just can't prevent the inevitable."
Phonso's expression was profoundly sad.
Scotty met his brother's sad brown eyes and then he swallowed and nodded, feeling his own eyes sting. "They'll go into foster care …"
Phonso finished for him, proving that he had already thought of this very ending.