He blinked at her, his eyes hardening before he carefully schooled his features into an expression that was far too calm. “I . . . see. Are any of these half siblings legitimate? To be technically accurate,” he added coldly.

She winced. He was mad. He has every right to be. “Yes. Two are legal heirs, another four are like us.”

“You’ve met them all.” A statement, not a question. And still unnervingly calm.

“Yes. They’re all . . . close. They have family dinners. Reunions. Holidays. They’re nice people. All of them live in or around New Orleans. And they’ve welcomed me.”

His calm expression was morphing into one of betrayal, and it was like a knife in her gut. Because she deserved it. She deserved every ounce of resentment and rage he could muster.

“How long have you been welcomed by them?” he asked, the question barely audible.

“I didn’t meet them right away. I was afraid to. I wasn’t in a great place emotionally when I first arrived in New Orleans.”

“But you settled there. Near them.”

“Yes. I used the money from Grandma’s will to go to college. Met Farrah. Met her family. Started therapy. I eventually got a car and found John’s house. That was after my first year at Tulane.”

“John.”

“He’s the oldest. He’s thirty-five and is the glue, I guess. He and his wife do all the organizing, but everyone hosts at different times. Adele is the youngest. She’s twenty-three. All together there are seven nieces and five nephews.”

“You met them seven years ago?” Gideon asked, stricken.

She flinched. “No, not then. For a year I drove to John’s house and sat outside, watching them come and go. All the holidays and parties. I watched them living their lives, trying to get the courage to talk to them.”

“And then?” Gideon asked gruffly.

She studied his face, but she couldn’t tell if he was feeling anger, regret, or what else. He’d wiped his expression clean. But she knew he was feeling something, because his jaw was so tight, it was a wonder he hadn’t cracked a few teeth.

“And then, after about a year and a half of what I thought was stealth, John came out to the car and asked if I wanted to come in. Turns out they’d all been watching me while I watched them, almost from the beginning.”

Gideon was silent for a long, long moment. “So you have relationships with our siblings, is that what you’re saying?”

It was almost a relief. Almost. Because Gideon hadn’t asked the truly hard question yet. Why didn’t you tell me? She still didn’t have a good answer. “Yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me.” Another statement, not a question. Of course it wasn’t a question. Because she hadn’t told him.

“No, I didn’t.” She drew a breath and hoped this would end okay. “They asked me to tell you, to reach out to you.” She exhaled and it hurt. “To tell you that they wanted to meet you. To know you.”