"No."

"It's mind-boggling."

"Uh-huh."

"Open your eyes," she demanded.

He sighed loudly, then did as she asked. "What?"

"Can you think of anything nice to say about her?"

"Sure I can. She was a selfish, obsessive, compulsive, greedy-"

Michelle pinched him. "Say something nice about her."

"She's dead. That's kind of nice."

"Shame on you. Are you hungry?"

"No."

"Yes, you are. You're always hungry. Come help me."

He grabbed her arm when she tried to stand. "When is Theo leaving?"

The question came out of nowhere, catching her off guard. "Monday," she whispered. "He leaves with his friend, Noah,

Monday morning."

Even she could hear the sadness in her voice. She didn't try to be cavalier or pretend she didn't care, because she couldn't fool

her brother. John Paul knew her better than anyone in the whole world, and he had always been able to see through her defenses. She never lied or played games with him.

"You were stupid," he whispered.

She nodded. "Yes."

"You shouldn't have allowed yourself to become so vulnerable."

"I know."

"Then why didn't you protect yourself? He's an outsider."

"I didn't see it coming. What can I say? It just… happened."

"So?"

"So what?"

"So are you gonna fall apart when he leaves?"

"No," she whispered. Then she said it again more forcefully. "No."

"We'll see."

Theo wasn't paying any attention to Michelle or John Paul. He had just turned a page in the album and was looking at a faded photo of a beautiful young woman. She was posed standing under a tree, holding a bouquet of daisies in her hand. The woman wore an ankle-length, light-colored organza dress with a ribbon streaming down from her waist. Her short, curly hair framed an angelic face. The photo was black-and-white, but Theo guessed her hair was red and her eyes were blue. If the clothes and the haircut had been more contemporary, he would have thought he was looking at Michelle.

"That's my Ellie," Jake said. "She's pretty, isn't she?"

"Yes, sir, she is."

"I look at my three, and I see Ellie in all of them. Remy got her laugh, John Paul got her love of the outdoors and Michelle got

her heart."

Theo nodded. John Paul was following Michelle into the kitchen, but when he heard his father mention his mother, he paused to look over Theo's shoulder. Then Theo turned the page, and John Paul moved on. There was a photo of Remy and John Paul

when they were little boys and a girl standing between them. The boys looked as though they'd been rolling around in mud and were happy about it. Their grins were ornery. The girl wasn't smiling and had outgrown the dress she was wearing.

"That's Catherine," Jake told him. "She always had to wear a dress, no matter what the occasion. That one was one of her favorites because it had lace on it. I remember she would nag her mama to stitch this or that seam back together. Catherine

had a healthy appetite."

Theo kept turning the pages. Catherine's mother must have sent photos after she'd moved, because there were at least twenty

f her daughter. In each photo the girl was wearing a dress, but the quality had improved. In one, the child stood in front of a Christmas tree holding two identical dolls in her arms. He turned another page and saw Catherine in a different dress holding

two stuffed bears.

Jake chuckled when he saw the photo. "Catherine always had to have two of everything," he explained. "Some folks, once

they've been poor, when they come into money, no matter how young or old they are, well, they just can't have enough. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes," Theo answered. "People who lived through the Depression were always storing up for the next one."

"That's right. Catherine was just like that. The Depression was just a history lesson to her, but she acted like she'd lived through one. She was worried she'd run out, I suppose, so if she liked a doll or a bear, she made her mama buy her another one just like

it in case something happened to the first one. She did the same thing with clothes. Once Junie had money to spend, she made sure her daughter had the finest of everything and she catered to her every whim. Ellie thought Junie was spoiling her out of guilt because she wasn't married when she had her.

"I thought she'd outgrow the need to hoard things, but she didn't. Come to find out, it got worse. She started doing some mighty strange things. She even put in a second phone line. When I asked her why, she said it was in case the first line broke. Said she didn't want to have to wait on the phone repair people."

Michelle interrupted when she came back to the table. "John Paul's warming up the gumbo," she said.

Theo was turning the pages back and forth. He looked at the photo of Catherine dressed in an obvious hand-me-down that was too small for her growing body, then flipped back to the photo of Catherine dressed like a princess, clutching the two identical dolls.

"The poor thing started putting on the weight after she married," Jake remarked.

"How would you know that?" Michelle asked. "She never let you come and see her."

"Her housekeeper told me," he said. "Rosa Vincetti and I would chat every now and again when she answered the phone.

She's a real nice woman. Very timid, but sweet as can be. She gave me a recipe for homemade pasta, but I haven't tried it out yet. She also told me she was getting alarmed by Catherine's weight. Worried her heart would blow up on her, she said."

"Catherine was-" Michelle began.

"Weird," John Paul shouted from the kitchen.

"And you're not?" Michelle countered.

"Hell, I'm normal compared to her."

"Daddy, how did you find out we were getting money?" Michelle asked.

"You still don't believe me?" Jake asked.

"I didn't say that."

"You're still not convinced, though, are you?" Jake pushed the chair back and stood. "I got a certified letter to prove it. It came about an hour ago."

Jake went to the kitchen counter, lifted the lid on the elephant-shaped cookie jar where he kept all his important papers, and

pulled out the envelope.

Michelle was sitting next to Theo now, looking through the album. There was a photo of her mother holding a baby in her lap.

With the tip of her finger, she touched her mother's face.

"That's Remy when he was a baby."

Two pages later, he was looking at photos of Michelle and laughing. In every photo there was something sticking up or out.

Her hair, her shirt, her tongue.

"I was adorable, wasn't I?"

He laughed. "Definitely adorable."

Jake dropped the envelope in front of Michelle. "Here's your proof, Dr. Smarty-pants."

Michelle just shook her head and smiled. "Daddy has lots of cute nicknames for me."

Theo was laughing when he glanced over and saw the name of the law firm in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope.

"That's it," he whispered. "That's it," he repeated and slapped the table.

"What's it?"

"The connection. It's the same law firm. Son of a…" Turning, he grabbed the letter out of Jake's hand. "Do you mind?"

"Go ahead," Jake said.

"But you haven't explained…" Michelle started.

Theo put his hand on hers. "In a minute. Okay? Where are my glasses?"

"You're wearing them."

*'Oh, right. Man, it's falling into place."

Jake and Michelle both stared at him while he read the letter. When he finished, he pushed his chair back and stood. "I've got to go to New Orleans."

Michelle picked up the letter and quickly read it. According to Catherine's instructions, her attorney, Phillip Benchley, was hereby informing each of the beneficiaries of the total sum of the estate and the amount of each bequest. The Renard family was to receive four hundred thousand dollars to be divided equally among Jake and his three children. Rosa Maria Vincetti would receive one hundred fifty thousand dollars for her years of loyal service to Catherine. John Russell, Catherine's husband, would receive one hundred dollars, and the remainder of the vast estate would be given to the Epston bird sanctuary.