Page 7

"She used to say you had a divining rod for the truth." Jake said softly.

"Divining rod?"

"You know, those things some people swear can find water."

"Oh." I nodded. "So what well of truth have I discovered. Jake?"

He laughed but then grew serious quickly.

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"I know Megan is really your mother," he admitted. He fingered his wineglass. "I always knew."

"Grandmother Hudson told you?" He nodded.

"What else did she tell you?" He looked up.

"Not long before she died, she told me how you hunted down your real father in London." he said.

"I didn't exactly hunt him down."

"Those were her very words. I just knew she would do it, she said. Frances wasn't angry about it. She was impressed with your resourcefulness."

"Why did she trust you with all these deep family secrets. Jake?"

I fixed my eyes on him intently and he poured the remaining wine into his glass.

"Maybe because she had no one else she really trusted," he said and drank his wine.

"I didn't think she needed to tell anyone anything." He looked surprised, his bushy eyebrows hoisted.

"Naw," he said. "That was just what she wanted everyone else to think. She wasn't really as much of the iron queen she pretended to be."

"Why did she leave me so much and make it so difficult for me with the family? Did she tell you that? Did she explain what she hoped would happen?"

He shook his head and shrugged

"She thought a lot of you. Princess. You came crashing into her life like a wave of freshwater. She was very depressed about her family until you arrived on the scene. When you're that age and your family is disappointing, you start to wonder what it was all for and that can make you very sad. You took most of that sadness away. She wasn't going to check out without making sure you were strong."

"I'm not so strong. Jake, even with all she's left me. I'm by myself again. Grandmother Hudson's attorney called me a short while ago to tell me that my mother. Grant and Victoria are pushing forward with the legal challenge even if it means dragging everything into the open. Grandma's health records, my mother's past, everything about me. too. She'll make me look like some fortune hunter taking advantage of an elderly lady. I'd be better off if I had inherited nothing." I moaned.

"Hey, hey, don't talk like that," he ordered. but I couldn't keep the tears behind the dam of my lids. They began to pour over and streak down my cheeks. "All the people I love are either dead or too far away to help me."

"I'm here." he boasted and rose from his seat. He came over to me and put his arm around my shoulders. "You're going to do fine. Princess. We owe it to Frances," he said.

"Sure," I muttered and flicked the tears away with the back of my hand.

"I'm going to help you." he insisted.

"Okay. Jake."

"I mean it. I can help you."

"Okay, Jake."

He stepped away and stared at the wall,

"I've got to believe she worked it so I would do this." he muttered, more to himself than to me.