There was a frustrated raise of his brows at the dubious honor.

“She is showing!” he snapped back at Uriel. “You have had more than ample time to do this correctly, Uriel.”

As crisp as the words were, there was a tightness to his face that suggested more than just anger. The tension eased only slightly at the mention of the child’s surname, though there was a flinch at the ‘two things that mattered’ to Uriel.

Though the pinch of his eyes suggested he had much to say about her first remark, instead he settled back into his seat as though it were not worth the effort.

All that relief evaporated when his putz of a brother took his departure and left his mistress behind! His jaw clenched and his face flushed, but he took a presumably unaffected sip of his drink.

“Katherine,” he repeated, clipped. “You have been with this … much, much younger man, for how long now? With his child. How many other children have you had, Katherine?”