Liam didn’t back down from Oscar’s challenging tone. “Did anyone ever snatch you from your parents when you were a little tyke and hide you in a windowless room where you didn’t recognize a single soul? Then call you by a different name while you halfway died from pneumonia? And when you finally started feeling better, the only people you saw were two strangers you were supposed to call Ma and Pa if you wanted to be fed? Did that ever happen to you?”

“No,” Oscar said silkily. “That never happened to me.”

“It did to me. After a while, I believed them.”

Poppy had already seated herself at the table and was filling her plate. “That doesn’t make any sense. I remember my childhood perfectly. My earliest memory is when I crawled over the rim of my crib to play with my brother’s croquet mallet.”

Gwen sensed Liam beginning to bristle and rushed to avoid conflict. Smoothing a welcoming expression on her face, she took Patrick’s arm. “Poppy, this is the man I was telling you about the day you showed us the nursery.”

Oscar looked suspicious as she performed the introductions, but Patrick behaved perfectly, offering a generous smile, a handshake, and even a friendly wink at Natalia.

“So you’re the man who has finally coaxed Gwen out of lonely widowhood,” Poppy said. “She always has such an open mind when it comes to standards.”

Her tone was gracious, but everyone heard the insult. If Gwen didn’t snip Poppy’s rudeness quickly, it would run rampant. She kept a serene smile but met Poppy’s gaze squarely. “Darling, my open mind is the only way I’ve been able to tolerate you all these years.”

Natalia stifled a laugh, but Oscar changed the subject as he joined his wife at the breakfast table.

“Enough pointless chatter,” he said, swiveling his attention to Liam. “Tell me about yourself. I gather you’ve had an interesting life.”

Liam shook his head. “Not until lately. I was just an ordinary welder until last month when someone stabbed me in the gut and turned my life upside down.”

“Stabbed?” Poppy gasped. “Like with a knife?”

“Like with a knife,” Liam confirmed. “We still haven’t figured out who did it, but I’m on the lookout, because you never know what sort of scoundrels are lurking nearby.”

“Who on earth would do such a thing?” Poppy asked, her voice filled with appalled wonder.

Liam swiveled his gaze to Oscar. “I don’t know. The only enemy I’ve ever had was Ira Horowitz. I stole his girl in the eighth grade, and he put tacks on my chair to get back at me. That was twenty years ago. Then last month, three guys show up at my door and try to slice up my liver. Weird.”