He did.
Not exactly.
But enough.
The same eyes.
The same narrow chin.
I sat down.
“Who is he?”
Martin spoke carefully.
“Thomas’s half brother.”
Julian looked at me.
I couldn’t answer because I hadn’t known Thomas had one.
Martin explained.
Thomas’s father had left the family when Thomas was young.
Years later, he had another relationship.
Lucas was born shortly before the man’s death.
The age difference between Thomas and Lucas was more than twenty years.
“Tom found out accidentally,” Martin said. “He contacted Lucas’s mother.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“I asked him the same thing.”
“And?”
“He said the situation was complicated.”
Anger rose inside me.
“That’s convenient.”
Martin didn’t defend him.
“Yeah.”
“What was complicated?”
“Lucas’s mother didn’t want contact with the wider Vance family. She’d had a difficult relationship with Tom’s father. Tom respected that.”
