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Lawrence didn't seemed ruffled by the outburst, emotional outbursts rarely rattled him. Still, he wasn't sure what about what he'd said had set the boy off in the first place. "Relax." he said with a shrug. "It is factual, the special education thing. It's not a stigma." Though having attended classes of that nature in school, he knew that it was. "And Luke himself told me that so I'm not putting words in his mouth."

Granda Luke. The boy must have had his mind thoroughly poisoned by the old b*****d.

"And he wouldn't have expected anything of me, he never did. I was just living up to his low expectations." he shrugged, not extending his arm again but walking ahead, leading the way back towards the house, his coat billowing out behind him, the serpent twisted around the tree glittering in the light. "I suppose he's spent years turning you against me. Him and your mother both."

The comment about the gas masks made Lawrence look puzzled for a brief moment before it set in what Malk meant. " Oh the trial. Yes. Was quite a horrid sight to behold. So much murder." He went on proudly " I didn't hurt a soul on mine."

"And most things that happened historically were not in fact my fault, those are facts." He shrugged. "I'm surprised you don't already have about 10 replacement siblings, your mother was young and not exactly brimming with restraint. Why Mikael and Melody?"

He snorted. "You'll only be disappointed"

Lawrence could feel Malkam closing up, bringing up walls around him. He’d said the wrong things. It had been primarily an attempt to find out if he had any siblings but the results seemed to be somewhat on the clumsy side, irritating the boy more than soothing him. “I… er.. I.. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to imply that it could be a replacement for them, not literally, I simply meant.. siblings, that maybe you’d have others, your mother has had a long life since then. I would assume she didn’t spend it pining over me.”

Part of him hoped she had.

Still, he rankled visibly at the implication he was a loser.

“I’ll still have you know that I am rather successful and wealthy. I might have failed you, but I have not failed every part of my life. Mikael likes me.”



"I know what you meant," Malkam said, and none of it had been nice. He didn't seem too impressed by his dad's declarations of wealth, either.

"You didn't send anything back. Not even a birthday card."



Lawrence raised his hand defensively. "Look. It wasn't like I didn't want to contact you all. I just couldn't. I had to change my identity completely. There was a lot more besides child support that I was trying to avoid dealing with. Even a card could be traced by postal marks or anything of the sort." He figured that it probably wasn't a good idea to include the fact that murder was one of those things he was avoiding.



"Whatever," Malkam said again, "That was when I was 12." He didn't want to hear any more of his dad's bullshit excuses.

"I just want to see my brother."