Sonia shakes her head adamantly. "He had a wife. He has a sister. He doesn't need any daughters. He doesn't -- he doesn't have the patience for it." She rubs her cheek again. "I know it's wrong to speak ill of the dead, but -- " She bites her lip. "I never got along with my cousins, either. They were -- too much like him. I wouldn't have wanted to grow up with them."

And thank God she didn't have to, though it just makes her chest ache for her own brother. She looks at Byerly in mixed curiosity and wariness, her face guarded. She hesitates. Finally, she says, slowly, "What is it?"