"Complicated how?"
Jacob and Caleb exchanged a glance.
"Silas," Caleb said slowly. "And six other men at Dominion Hall. They're Danes, too."
My brain stuttered. "What?"
"Products of Dad's other wife," Gideon said flatly. "Half-brothers we didn't know existed until recently."
I sat back, the chair creaking under my weight. "Jesus Christ."
"Yeah," Lucas muttered. "That was our reaction, too."
"And there's more," Levi added.
Of course, there was.
"The Vanguard," Gideon said, his voice dropping lower. "Ever heard of them?"
I shook my head.
"Secret organization," he continued. "Dad had deep ties with them. Worked with them for years. But something changed. They turned on him. Declared a sort of ... war."
"Why?" I demanded.
"We don't know," Jacob admitted. "Dad won't say. But recently, they called a truce."
"Until now," Caleb added grimly.
It clicked.
All of it.
The woman at Joy's shop. The timing. The way she'd known my name, known about us.
"The woman who visited Joy," I said, voice hard. "That was them."
Nods all around.
"We think it was a woman named Victoria," Gideon said. "Dad knows her. But he's keeping the details close."
Rage flared hot and immediate. I almost slammed my fist on the table. "Then we make him tell us. He owes us that."
No one disagreed.
The silence stretched, thick with old anger and new stakes.
Finally, Lucas broke it.
"We've all found a home here," he said quietly. "And women we want to spend the rest of our lives with."
My eyes went wide. "What?"
I looked at each of them in turn.
Caleb nodded. Jacob nodded. Ethan, Gideon, Levi—all of them.
Not sheepish. Not embarrassed.
