“The pleasure is all mine,” I say, pitching my voice lower and holding Alessi’s gaze. “But who, may I ask, are you?”
“Fay,” Daniel says, coming to my side and wrapping a happy arm around my waist. “This is my Uncle Alessi, my mother’s brother,” he tells me, and I raise my eyebrows, surprised by the news and pretending to be excited about it. But in reality, I find it unnerving – neither Daniel nor Kent has said very much about Daniel’s mother, Lenai, and I certainly didn’t know she had a brother. Especially one who makes Kent go pale like that.
“And this,” Daniel says, turning towards the beautiful woman, who looks at me like a hungry cat peering at a little canary, “is Natalia, an old family friend. My mother’s maid of honor, actually, at her wedding.”
“It is a pleasure,” Natalia says,
