r into the nearest guest room

up the leg of her pajamas. In the dim light, he could

It had healed, but he knew it still ached when

aced with a rare note of self-rep

"It's okay. It's an old injury." She was

nd called his p

agnosed her with a stress-induced fever, complicated by the flare-up of her old injury.

s of water and waited unti

are, Kathryne finally drifte

ce softening as he watched her. Then he turned and left the r

a strange bed. Bright sunlight strea

n she walked out of the bedroom. On the nightstand beside h

ching financial news on the large screen. The gentle man who had taken care of

hout turning his head

yne went to the dining table where a si

phone rang. He answ

y downstairs of the apartment b

at Kathryne. "Leo is look

e's hea

. She stood up, her back st

ebrow, a flicker of

pletely. In front of his mother." She would use Everett's presen

and the corner of his mouth tilted in a nearly

lobby on the first floor of the apartment building. Eleanor was a perfectly

he entered, but stopped short when

ress that Everett's assistant had delivered

pathetic hope. "Kate! You're here!

to Eleanor. "Mrs. Carlisle," she said, her

voice broke, and her body swayed as if she were about to fa

r shoulders as he pulled her trembling body closer to his steady frame. He

ancée, broken by betrayal, being protected by the honorable uncle

phone, showing her son half-dressed and desperate, and the heartbreaking