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She stared and then shook her head and smiled

"What did he say when he found out? I mean, what did he want to do?"

"He wanted to get to know me more," I replied "He told his wife all about land and he said she was okay with it, too, but he didn't talk about soild oats," I added She ignored my sarcasm "How did he look?"

"Terrific," I said "He's a very successful English professor, highly respected, and he has two beautiful children, a daughter and a son Just like you, only his daughter is the older child and they are both very well behaved"

She nodded, her eyes distant She looked like she really had been in love with him once and I had stirred up all those old memories After a moment her eyes seemed to click back to the present She took a deep breath

"You're an aoing to get through this For so you in the estate, as you know She has been trying to get Grant to do soal issue He rightly thinks that it will bring a great deal of unnecessary and unpleasant attention to our family?'

"Is he still trying to become president of the United States?" I asked out of the side of my mouth

"He's ah office soon," she admitted

I stopped and turned to her

"All right, Mother," I said "What do you want froet it out and over with, okay?"

"Well, we know that , "my mother created a situation that would make it all very difficult for us She has apparently left you title to fifty-one percent of the house and property, the re forty-nine percent divided between Victoria and me She left you fifty percent of the business, and she has left you what aood dividends"

My breath caught in my throat It would have taken Mama and anyone in her family twenty lifetimes to come close to ht

"Of course,"Victoria wants us to challenge the will and take it through court to get a judge to invalidate it She claiht e to the will and while that was going on, of course, your life would be in limbo, Rain

"So what Grant wants to propose is we compromise We'll set aside a quarter of a million dollars for you in an account and you could then be your own person and do whatever you wanted with your life Victoria would be satisfied Well, not really, but we could shut her up, and everyone could go on with their life What do you think?"

My eyes were so full of tears, I could barely see her Wasn't there even a tiny speck of a motherly instinct in her for me? Was Grandmother Hudson's death and the aftermath only an opportunity to rid herself of me forever?