Chapter 13 - MY BROTHER
“Anthony Lane?”
A quiet exhale.
“I haven’t heard anyone say that name in a long time.”
“My mother adopted you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Because I asked her not to tell you.”
That hurt.
“Why?”
“You were twenty-three. Your father had just died. Your engagement had ended.”
He knew all of it.
“Mom talked about me?”
“All the time.”
My eyes burned.
“What did she say?”
“That you pretended independence was a hobby instead of a trauma response.”
I laughed through tears.
“That sounds like her.”
Then:
“Why did she adopt you?”
Anthony’s voice changed.
“Because I had never legally belonged anywhere.”
I sat down.
“My mother was Elena’s mother too.”
“Different fathers?”
“Yes.”
“She gave you up?”
“She was seventeen.”
“St. Catherine’s?”
“Yes.”
“I spent childhood moving through foster homes.”
“And Elena?”
“She grew up with our mother.”
“Did she know about you?”
“Not until she was twenty-eight.”
“How?”
“I found her.”
Simple.
Human.
Not a conspiracy.
“What did Mom do?”
“She helped us.”
“How?”
“She was Elena’s social worker after Finn was born.”
“And eventually adopted you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Anthony exhaled.
“Because I was tired of emergency-contact forms.”
My heart cracked.
No family.
No one waiting.
The same wound Victor had thrown at me.
“Marjorie said adulthood didn’t cancel the human need to belong somewhere.”
I wiped my eyes.
“She made you take Lane?”
“No. I chose it later.”
“Why?”
“Because it was the first family name anyone offered me without asking what I could do for them.”
I understood him immediately.
Too well.
Then I asked:
“Why was Finn afraid of sirens?”
Anthony went silent.
“Not because of Elena’s accident.”
My heart changed rhythm.
“What?”
May you like
“He remembers what happened afterward.”
And the truth would force Victor to confront the worst mistake he had made after his wife died.
