Chapter SixBruce Carter smoothed his hair and glanced into the bedroom mirror. His thoughts were reproachful. My children won't be born stupid, like me, he thought. Mute Connor and the damaged child in the womb. Connor was mourning. Then the third baby was born, a perfect, sturdy and dark-eyed baby son, and Connor spoke for the first time since Lump died.
Lump, Lump, you are back and you're perfect. No one else knew. Lump returned as Jackson, the boy very much like his uncle Blair or perhaps like his great grandfather Joseph Williams Sr. Something to worry about there? No, Connor knew there was nothing to worry about ever again. Because all was well. Rest now, sweet ones, came the thoughts of their maternal grandmother from the big house next door.
Connor loved his brother Jackson so muc
