“Just answer.”
I glanced at Eleanor.
Then back at him.
“Yes.”
I hated discussing it.
My mother had raised me.
My biological father disappeared before I could remember him.
When my mother remarried, my stepfather adopted me and I became Bennett.
“What was your original surname?”
“Vale.”
Claire made a sound behind me.
I turned.
Her face had become completely white.
“What?”
I repeated it.
“Vale.”
She stared at me.
“Christopher… what was your father’s name?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“My mother refused to talk about him.”
Claire sat down.
Eleanor moved toward her.
“Claire?”
But Claire was staring at me like she had seen a ghost.
“My husband’s father had another son.”
Nobody spoke.
I felt pressure building inside my chest.
“What are you saying?”
“Marcus told me once.”
Her voice shook.
“His father had a child before he married Marcus’s mother. The family never acknowledged him.”
