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His grandfather turned grey, but Dare refused to give a da tree with him
Finally Benson levered himself out of his chair and pulled an envelope out of his desk drawer
Handing it to Dare, he sat down to wait ‘Read it,’ he urged when Dare just stared at it The postmark was Australia, where they had lived until Dare was six, at which time they had moved to America
Knowing he wasn’t going to like as inside, he ski internally at the shockingly angry letter that would have had the Pope thinking twice before reaching out again
Then he saw the signature and swore; his startled gaze caught Benson’s remote one ‘My mother didn’t write this’
‘I know,’ Benson said as if in pain ‘Now I know that now When I received it twenty-seven years ago I was too proud to question it And to ain’ Silence filled the room as Dare stared at the nasty letter
‘And now you’re dying and want to put everything right’
‘It’s not exactly like that Threeissues were raph in a doctor’s surgery It was soht away I don’t expect you to understand but after seeing her face againnothing else mattered’
Dare didn’t say anything while he worked through what he’d just discovered He couldn’t iine hoould respond if he had been in the sa
‘Does my mother know about this letter?’
Benson shook his head ‘I haven’t shown her yet’
‘Don’t,’ Dare decided ‘My father spun so er I spenthe was a secret-service operative He used to confide in me and tell me my mother didn’t understand and it wasn’t until his death that I realised he was just a low-level conhed and handed the letter back ‘And fortunately for you ive you’
‘Unlike you’
‘Yeah, unlike ht now he couldn’t say how he felt
His grandfather sighed ‘A chip off the old block’
Dare’s eyes narrowed dangerously ‘That’s the second ti like my father’
‘Actually, I was thinking that you reminded me of myself’ He pulled a face ‘Bitterness burrows deep, Dare, like a tick, and eats away at you slowly, just like a parasite’
‘I have a great life Nothing to be bitter about’
‘Yes, you’ve done well for yourself It interests e firm’