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So, instead, she sacrificed her happiness for his sake. Stuart wanted to strangle his grandfather.
“You must have loved him very much,” Patience whispered.
“He was my soul mate.” Ana smiled a watery smile, only to have it melt away seconds later. “I told Nigel, I’d come back. That as soon as I was eighteen I would find him. We could use my money to protect ourselves from Theodore’s influence.”
“But you didn’t go back.” She’d moved to Boston and never returned to Paris.
A tear slipped down Ana’s face. “There was nothing to go back to. A few weeks after I left, Nigel was killed in a motorcycle accident. He always rode too fast...”
Her voice grew wobbly, and the tears fell more frequently. “Later I heard Theodore had hired someone to purchase all his paintings of me and have them destroyed. All his work gone forever.”
“Oh, Tetya.” There were no words. Stuart jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around her, anger toward his grandfather building as Ana shook silently against him. Here he’d thought marrying Gloria was the old man’s low point. He couldn’t be more wrong.
A comforting warmth buffeted him. Patience stood by his side, her hand gently rubbing circles on Ana’s back. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Giving a sniff, his aunt lifted her head. While her eyes were red and puffy, Stuart saw the familiar backbone finding its way back. “My sweet child,” she said, swiping at her cheeks, “why are you apologizing? You didn’t do anything. Either of you.”
Her absolution did little to alleviate the hurt he felt on her behalf. “But if I’d known...”
“What? You’d have called him on his behavior? Theodore knew what he was doing. He was a selfish man who didn’t care who he hurt.”
No, thought Stuart, he didn’t.
She touched his cheek, tenderly, like the surrogate grandmother she’d become. “I’m just glad he didn’t destroy your heart the way he did mine.”
“Me, too.” Although he’d come damn close.
Emotionally and physically worn-out, Ana dozed off a short while later. Patience waited by the doorway while Stuart tucked the older woman in and gave her a goodbye kiss.
* * *
“This explains why she named all the cats Nigel,” Patience said, once they stepped into the corridor. “She was keeping her lover’s memory alive.” It broke her heart to think of Ana—sweet, gentle Ana—spending a lifetime mourning her only love. How could Theodore ruin his sister’s happiness like that? All because she’d dared to fall in love with the wrong kind of man?
Life really did stink sometimes.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Stuart looking back over his shoulder. “I knew my grandfather could be cold, but I always thought what happened with Gloria was a case of him being seduced. Now I wonder...” Rather than finish the sentence, he looked down at the linoleum. Didn’t matter. Patience could guess what he was thinking. In spite of what he said regarding his grandfather’s involvement, he still placed the bulk of the betrayal on Gloria’s shoulders. Ana’s story shifted the blame more evenly. “Ironic, isn’t it?” he said. “My grandfather being so intent on protecting the Duchenko name and fortune, only to make a spectacle of himself decades later by marrying a fortune hunter himself?”
“You heard Ana. He was selfish. Selfish people only care about what benefits them.”
“True.” He left out a deep breath. “Goes to show, you really can’t trust anyone.”
“That’s not true.” Patience rushed to keep the walls from reforming. “You can trust Ana. And you can trust me.” Staring directly at him, she dared him to look into her soul and see her sincerity. “I swear.”
“I know.” He went back to studying the floor.
This morning, Patience had joked about his glasses looking sexy and hip. At the moment, however, he just looked lost. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to wrap her arms around her waist and hold him close. He started at first, but it wasn’t long before he hugged her back, his chin resting on her shoulder. “I’m as bad as he was, you know that?”
“What are you talking about?” Pulling back, she frowned at him. “If you’re talking about your grandfather, you couldn’t be more wrong.” The two men were day and night. “I’ve seen how much you care about Ana. For crying out loud, you’ve been in here visiting every day since the accident. You make sure she has the best doctors, the best therapy. Hell, you went to the humane society dinner dance for her.”
