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‘And as your brother like?’

Ellie’s words broke into his thoughts and Alek opened his mouth to answer but the most articulate person in the world would’ve had difficulty expressing the conflicting feelings which had torn through him when he’d seen his twin brother for the first time

‘He looks like me,’ he said, at last

‘Your twin brother looks like you? You don’t say!’

And unexpectedly, he began to laugh—her quip doing the i soht about how he’d felt when he’d walked into the famous hotel and seen a black-hairedback at him from the other side of the restaurant He renition which had rocked him and momentarily robbed him of breath

‘His name is Loukas but his eyes are black,’ he said ‘Not blue’

And that had been the only physical difference he’d been able to see, although after the second bottle of wine Loukas had told him about the scars which tracked over his back, and what had caused them He’d told him a lot of stuff Some of which was hard to hear Soet About a enitally bad picker of men, and the sorry way that had influenced her life About his poverty-stricken childhood—so different from Alek’s, but not without its own problems Dark problems which Loukas had told him he would save for another day

‘Had he been trying to find you for a long time?’ Ellie whispered

He shook his head ‘He only discovered that I existed last year, when hisourmother died’

‘Oh, Alek’

He shook his head, unprepared for the rush of e to ste very hard not to do all day He cleared his throat and concentrated on the facts