FAYE
I left Irene’s room with the heaviness of her words still bothering me. The door clicked shut behind me, and for a long moment I stood in the hallway.
She had given me enough to know there was fire behind the smoke...just not enough to hand to Alexander as proof. And she had made me promise not to reveal it came from her. That left me in a tight spot.
I thought of Alexander’s face earlier that day....the cold certainty when he’d said his father had no other children, the conviction in his voice that he knew his entire family tree. He had clung to that firmly. What would happen if I told him what Irene said? He would demand where I got the information from. He would see betrayal in every hesitation, and if Irene’s name slipped from my lips… it would drive a wedge between them that m
