All day Matthew heard the sounds of comings and goings. He saw the carriage from the London Institute rattle up to the door and Aunt Tessa emerge with a basket of medicine. She had been learning some warlock magic.

Matthew understood that they needed a Silent Brother and a warlock, and they still might not save his mother.

Charles did not return. Matthew had helped his father back to his chair. They sat together in the breakfast parlor as the light turned from the glow of morning to the blaze of day, then faded into the shadows of evening.

Papa’s face looked carved out of old stone. When he spoke at last, he sounded as if he were dying inside. “You should know, Matthew,” he said. “Your mama and I, we were …”

Separating. Ending our marriage. She loved another. Matthew braced himself for the horror, but when it came, it was greater than anything he could have imagined.

“We were in anticipation of—of a happy event,” said Papa, his voice catching in his throat.

Matthew stared at him with blank incomprehension. He simply could not understand. It would hurt too much.

“Your mama and I had to wait some time for Charles Buford, and for you, and we thought you were both worth the wait,” said Father, and even in the midst of that awful moment he tried to smile for Matthew. “This time Charlotte was hoping for—for a daughter.”

Matthew choked on his horror. He thought he might never speak another word or eat another bite. He would be choking on horror for years.

We thought. We were in anticipation. It was entirely clear that Father was certain, and had reason to believe, his children were his.

“We were concerned since you and Charles are both now quite grown up,” said Henry. “Gideon, good fellow, has been dancing attendance on Charlotte during Clave meetings. He has always stood as your mother’s friend, lending her the Lightwood name and consequence whenever she needed support, and advising her when she wished for good counsel. I am afraid I have never truly understood the workings of an Institute, let alone the Clave. Your mama is a wonder.”

Gideon had been helping his mother. Matthew was the one who had attacked her.