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Despite the fact that she’d spoken in Italian, Jack didn’t seerabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him on both cheeks

"Your mother will be very happy" He took both of her hands in his "Come see her"

Mary’s feet felt as if they were filled with lead "Papa? When she asked forwhen she saw the guilty look on her father’s face "She doesn’t know you called me, does she?"

"Your one on long enough Coain"

Perhaps her father had been wrong not to tell either Mary or her , but he’d been stuck in the s for tooroom and down the hall to the bedroom he shared with her mother, Mary let him But since she knew she couldn’t do this without Jack, she reached for his hand with her free one so that the three of theave a soft knock on the door before looking inside the bedroom "Tesoro, I have soh Mary’s head as her father slowly opened the door How ed her er a girl but a woman now? Would there be softness in her aze be just as cold as it had been that horrible day socold hand with his warm one in a show of support, Mary knew there was only way to find out She sucked in a deep breath and threw her shoulders back, calling on years of poise in front of the cah the hardest moment of her life

Lucia Ferrer had always been a beautiful woray, but her skin was still relatively unlined, her irl when she’d left, but now that she was an adult, she saw in her mother’s face the same eyes, nose and chin that she saw every tiotten how similar they were, not just in temperament, but in looks, too?

Mary couldn’t re sick when she was a child She’d inherited that froenes that meant she’d never once called in sick For Lucia to spend any part of the day in bed meant that she was really and truly not well

"Mama"

The short, simple word sounded raw and uncertain from lack of use Her hter’s sudden reappearance in her life that she couldn’t yet speak

How Mary longed to run into the roon that she was happy to see her daughter, and the pride that was never far froain inside Mary as it had so , foolish girl with only dreams and adventures ahead of her This ti true and others cru She’d known terrible heartbreak and then had been lucky enough to find a love that would last forever

And, ed for the faht: Pride had kept her away for too long If her ain, well, that was too bad Because it was long past time for this nonsense between them to come to an end