a smile. “Yes, your mother and George had a very special relationship. She sent flowers after his passing. I imagine his passing was hard for her.” Rose tilts her head. “It makes me sad that you never knew your grandfather. He was an amazing man, a wonderful father, a giver to the community, and a natural-born leader. The best husband I could have ever wished for.” Rose turns her head, deep in thought.
My curiosity gets the better of me. “How did the fire start?”
She bows her head, her eyes drifting over my shoulder and out the window. “There was no trace of how it started. George and I were out at the local market. We came home and saw the smoke. Of course that stubborn man had to run inside. He located the source of the fire inside the library. While he was trying to smother the flames, he got caught between some shelves.”
“Charlotte told me it was you who pulled him out of there. You’re a hero.”
Rose lets out a laugh. “I’m no hero, dear. I was able to get him out of there alive that day, but the fire had already reached his lungs. A real hero would have known. Anyway, I was so sorry to hear about your mother, Katrina. You may find this hard to believe, but there was a time when we were very close. She was like a daughter to me. I raised her as if she were my own daughter, and I’ve never stopped loving her. When I heard of her passing, I was heartbroken.”
A strange mix of emotions swirls through me. Confusion, doubt, anger. “Forgive me, Rose, but if that’s true, then why haven’t I met you until now?”
Rose shakes her head and meets my gaze with a sorrowful expression. “I tried to keep a relationship with her, but she wanted nothing to do with George and me after your parents—well, things got complicated, I suppose.”
I swallow. This is the closest I’ve come to speaking about my father in years. The pain of knowing he chose to never know me is as embarrassing as it is hurtful. “I don’t think it sounds complicated at all. He got my mom pregnant and then didn’t want the responsibility of fatherhood.”
Silence stretches between us as Rose takes a slow sip of her tea. “Let's just say I understood her reasons for leaving, and I respected them.” Rose sets her cup down and rests her hands on her lap. “I trust over time you’ll come to understand it all too. Like we’ve already discussed, our family has a responsibility to this place. The moment she held you for the first time, all she wanted to do was protect you. She believed the only way that was possible was to cut off all ties with our family.”
“But why? Protect me from what?”
Rose opens her mouth a few times before finally speaking. “Grace was afraid of a destiny that could not be altered. She ran from it, she tried to control it, and she sacrificed us with the belief that you would be better off.” Rose takes a deep breath. “You would have ended up here no matter what, Katrina. Apollo Beach, Summer Island, this manor—this is your destiny. Not even your mother, with the best intentions in the world, had the power to stop that. Unfortunately, divine forces were at play. That’s why you’re here today.”
Rose’s cryptic answer causes a sudden wave of heat to shoot through my body. “You’re telling me my mom is dead because of some divine intervention? Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
“I assure you, none of this is crazy. You just don’t understand it all yet.”
Her words only make me shake so hard there’s a rattling between my ears. My emotions—my fear, anger, and pain—are so intense, it’s like they’re all snowballing downhill without an end in sight. It just builds and builds until I feel like I might explode. “How can I when there are so many secrets?”
I don’t mean for my words to turn into a scream or for Rose’s teacup to rattle so hard that it flies up and splashes onto her face. Clear droplets land on her otherwise-flawless face, in her curled hair, and all over her crisp white blouse.
Rose’s eyes are wide as she looks me up and down. “Calm down this instant, Katrina.”
A rush of energy blows through me, like a firehose putting out my anger that sparked from somewhere deep in my chest. I