“Jack’s brother.”
I stared at her.
“Jack didn’t have a brother.”
“He did.”
“No. He grew up believing he had no family.”
“Because he didn’t know.”
I looked back at the photograph.
“How…?”
“They entered care after their parents’ accident. Different placements, mistakes in the records. Eventually, they lost track of each other.”
“And Jack only found out last year?”
“Yes.”
“Did he find Daniel?”
Mrs. Bennett looked down.
“He tried.”
“What happened?”
“Daniel had already died.”
I thought of Ethan sitting on Denise’s floor.
“No.”
Mrs. Bennett held my gaze.
“Ethan is Daniel’s son.”
For a second, I couldn’t speak.
“So Jack wasn’t…”
“No.”
I looked at the two boys in the photograph again.
“He spent his whole life thinking he had no family.”
“Yes.”
“And when he finally found his brother, he was already gone.”
“But his son wasn’t.”
Ethan.
