Thomas noticed everything.
“This place looks rather prosperous.”
Lara folded her hands.
“We've worked hard.”
He glanced at the bubbling stew.
“I see you've kept yourself occupied.”
The words carried the same faint condescension she remembered from Boston.
Lara did not react.
Instead she asked, “Why are you here?”
Thomas removed his gloves slowly.
“I've been trying to reach you.”
“You know where I live.”
“I wrote.”
“I received your letters.”
“And yet you didn't answer.”
“No.”
He looked offended.
“I am your brother.”
“I know.”
“Surely that means something.”
Lara met his eyes.
“It meant something when you sold me to a stranger as part of a scheme to steal another man's ranch.”
Thomas stiffened.
“That's an ugly way to describe a complicated situation.”
Elias crossed his arms.
“It's also an accurate one.”
Thomas looked toward him.
“I would prefer to discuss family business without interference.”
Lara's expression hardened.
“My husband is my family.”
Silence followed.
Thomas looked at her wedding ring again.
For the first time, he seemed to understand that the marriage was real.
Not merely a convenient arrangement.
Not an act of pity.
Not another embarrassing circumstance his sister had stumbled into.
A choice.
Mutual and deliberate.
He cleared his throat.
“Very well.”
Lara waited.
Thomas looked toward the table.
“May I sit?”
She nodded.
“Of course.”
He took a chair.
Elias remained standing.
Lara poured coffee into a mug and placed it in front of her brother.
Thomas warmed his hands around it.
For several moments, he said nothing.
Then he looked up.
“I've lost the Boston house.”
Lara blinked.
“The family house?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“The investments never recovered.”
She sat opposite him.
“What investments?”
He sighed.
“Railway shares. Property speculation. Loans that were supposed to be repaid.”
“You told me Father left us secure.”
“He did.”
“And you spent it.”
Thomas looked away.
“I made decisions that seemed reasonable at the time.”
Lara watched him.
There it was again.
The language of avoidance.
The same kind of explanation he had offered when she discovered his agreement with Caleb Ryland.
She asked quietly, “How much did you lose?”
“Almost everything.”
Elias moved toward the stove but remained close enough to listen.
Thomas continued.
“I sold the house in October. The creditors took most of what remained.”
“And now?”
He stared into the coffee.
“I have nowhere permanent to stay.”
Lara was silent.
She had spent years imagining what it might feel like to see her brother humbled.