My Brother's Keeper; by Marsha Davenport.

Amazing and complex story of human behaviour and relationships based on a true story of a family in New York, about two brothers that grew up under a cruel person intent on destroying spirit who victimised their parents and them with the usual weapon then and often even now - money coupled with a character that likes power over people and likes to see them break.

The two brothers go on to become the two most predictable characters that can grow from this, one molded to the manipulating power user character that he might not have become had he a different upbringing, and the other a gentle character that won't be this no matter what. They love the same woman, too, and are tortured by not knowing who she loved, who is the father of her child. She is sane enough to leave them, and when the two brothers - who always lived together till they were found dead, with those that discovered them having to tunnel through stacks of old and never thrown away newspapers to find them - are found dead, their will declares the child heir with the requirement that the identity of the father be disclosed albeit the inheritance does not depend upon the identity, merely that it be disclosed. This, the child now grown into a commendable man, and his mother, both refuse to do, even though the inheritance is not inconsiderable.

The harder brother stays with one as the tortured one no matter he made life difficult for those around, and the gentler one is the stronger one in his serenity finally.

Perhaps this is true of all humans. Those that would manipulate, torture, have and use power over others psychologically are the weak, the tortured, the pathetic and not merely despicable; those that would hold on to gentle part of oneself and noble code of conduct, and not battle the lesser on their own levels are the stronger no matter what the appearances.