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He drove off and I went inside and closed the door behind ht

There's a lesson, a lesson about money and how important it really is

I was grateful Corbette had coer and eventhat was about to take place

Of course, they didn't have to ring a doorbell I should have realized that Victoria had her own set of keys to this house I was putting away lass froh the hallway, ricocheting off the walls like a hard thrown tennis ball

"I want to have each and every art piece evaluated and some of the accent pieces in this house are valuable antiques Mother never paid attention to what things cost She had no idea, no idea at all what she was giving away"

I stepped out and looked down the hallway at the three of them My mother looked smartly dressed in a black leather jacket, a tailored shirt and an anklelength pleated skirt Aunt Victoria wore her usual double-breasted business suit and Grant was in a dark blue, pin-striped suit

Right from the moment I first met my real mother I could see the reseht, slim and small boned We had the same color eves and practically the same shape jaw Her forehead wasn't as wide and her nose was sht sharpness at the tip

The dimple in her cheek flashed on and off at will it seeh her mind I alondered what my real mother sahen she looked at me Did she see the rese back so probleiven up the hope that she would ever look at hter: eyes filled with pride and love

Today, her eyes were dark orry Every time she turned them to me, they would practically shout out with the plea for me to make all the stress disappear I could hear her prayer: let hunpleasant and burying worry and concerns in soed from the very second she turned to me in the hallway, please Rain

Grant was as calh it had just come off the rack in the departht brown hair that reseh it I saw that during the days of Granded to keep a tan all year long I suspected he went to one of those tanning salons His dark coreen eyes, eves that always looked full of intelligence When he gazed at me I could feel his concentration, his search for every little hint of thought in otiator

The moment I appeared Victoria's stern, narrow and honey face flashed its fury atneck After what Jake had revealed I couldn't help searching for so about it I did see similarities in their mouths and jaws and even in the shape of their eyes However, she had nothing of his joviality, not even a hint of softness or cohter and sht only sine her even considering the possibility of any relationship to hihter

Jake was right: I could wound her deeply by telling her She thought she was such a blue blood

"We'll all go into the drawing room," she declared

"I'll be right there" I said and deliberately returned to the kitchen to finish cleaning up I wanted them to wait

When I did enter the roo her wait had raised Victoria's ire to explosive heights Her normally pallid cheeks were crimson and her eyes looked like matches had been lit behind them