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"He's gone, I take it?" she said in a sweet, almost pleasant voice.

She still wore her faded pink, terrycloth robe. Without makeup, her face wrinkled from her night's sleep and her hair unruly, she looked like one of those poor, disheveled homeless women who used to inhabit the alleys and dumps near the projects where I lived in Washington.

In her right hand, she clutched a light yellow folder.

"Yes." I said. "He left right after you burst in on us. You have some nerve invading my privacy."

"Invading your privacy?" She laughed and then grew stem. "You don't have a right to privacy. Not if you're going to conduct yourself like some street girl in my mother and father's house where only dignity and proper behavior were ever tolerated. I'm sure my mother would have changed her mind about you on the spot if she had been beside me last night. And after all the warnings and all the advice I have given you!

"Just like Megan, bringing disgrace to our doorstep. How many times did my father have to pay someone off or buy someone's favor just to keep our good name as high as it should be? More times than I care to count. I can tell you that much," she said, answering her own question quickly.

"Well, now that he was so brazen about his seduction of you, I have Mrs. Churchwell as a reliable witness,"

"I wasn't seduced. I love Austin and he loves me," I insisted. She wagged her head.

"Of course you do. What girl in your place, crippled, sentenced to be in a wheelchair her whole life, wouldn't grasp at the first good-looking face to turn his false smile to you and fill you with fictitious promises? Why, most girls who weren't in

wheelchairs would fall for those lines and winks these days, much less someone like you."

"Stop it! You don't know what you're talking about. You could never understand." I yelled.

Aunt Victoria stretched her thin lips into a mean spinster smile.

"Why, child, there are few as well equipped to understand the craftinesses of men, their slyness and guile. Unlike most. I am not blinded by phony compliments. You might say I have a built-in lie detector. It rings here." she said putting her left hand over her heart. "and sends warnings immediately to here." She pointed at her temple.

"What did that fortune hunter tell you?" she continued, stepping closer. "Did he tell you that you were just as beau-EH as before, maybe even more so? Did he tell you that you made his day, made his heart sing, brought such joy to him that he couldn't imagine himself without you? Did he tell you he saw you everywhere, constantly heard your voice and you were stuck in his mind forever and ever? Did he promise to always cherish and love you. too?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes to all of that." I screamed at her. "And he means it and we will be in love and we will be together."

She nodded.

"We'll see," she said. "Maybe some day, I'll stop protecting you and you will end up with someone like him."

"I won't end up with someone like him. I'll end up with him," I vowed.

"Fine. But first you had better listen to me and do what I want you to do."

She opened the file and took out some documents, spreading them on the bed before me.

"I haven't just been si

tting on my hands while precious Megan has been twisting and turning Grant in the wind. you know. Your mother gave up responsibility for you long ago. We certainly can't expect her to do anything for you now. Because of your incapacity. I have had my lawyers petition the court to appoint me your guardian. Yes, you can get your attorney to put up resistence, but I don't think you will.

"In the meantime, these documents here," she said taking out others. "are the documents to be sent to the state concerning your fortune-hunter's company."

"Stop calling him that," I said. She shrugged.

"Call him what you want. These other documents," she continued. "constitute a lawsuit I intend to file against the therapy company. It will bankrupt him just to put up a defense. You know how lawyers can bleed you," she said gleefully.

"Here are the press releases I've had written as well," My eyes were stinging with tears.

"Now," she went on. "none of this will go any further if you sign this."

She brought out another document.

"What is that?"

"It's the power of attorney I've been begging you to sign. Once I'm in complete control of the estate's business again, we'll all be better off, including you."