“I said it was eventually passed down to another descendant. I didn’t say to all relatives. And it’s only passed on to one individual when they’re born Chosen.” He folded his hands together, as they hung from his knees, watching her.
She really was trying to keep up, but her logical side kept asking if he was lying, crazy, or some combination of the two. There was no way this spark resided in her. Boring was her middle name, and simple was her last. She was absolutely, positively nothing special.
“Well, if not passed to my father, then to who?” Please don’t say me, she prayed.
“Why you, of course,” he said with an impish grin. She wanted to smack that grin right off his smug face.
Of course, he would say it came to her. The only way this made sense was if her grandfather had told him about her freakishness. Just another item to add to the list of what she didn’t know about her grandpa. With a clear, precise sternness, she tried to deny having an ability. “I. Don’t. Have—”
“Yes, you do,” he said, sitting up straighter and placing his hands on his knees. “And no, he didn’t tell me what it was. He said you would share if you ever felt like you could.”
Relieved, her shoulders relaxed as she sat a little easier. “Why wasn’t my dad Chosen?”
“A Chosen doesn’t choose another Chosen. Richard wasn’t chosen. You were.”
A thought struck her. “When you say Chosen, it sounds like I’m being picked for something. What am I chosen for, exactly, and what was my grandfather’s ability?”
Quentin held a hand up to her. “I’m going to get to all of that, I promise. What Christophe could do was hear the emotions of others around him. He once told me it was like their inner psyche, their soul maybe, shared how they were feeling with him. And by the way, he knew what the other members of your family really felt about him,” he said, furrowing his brows into a straight line.
Profound relief washed over her. He knew how they were all along, which made leaving them forty-five percent of his estate even more baffling. Then she was dumbstruck. Christophe always told her she was special, not a freak at all. He said it because he knew on some level what it was like for her. Quentin was right; her gift was similar to his. She could feel the emotions of others, but she had to physically touch them with her hands. Secrets—her grandfather was full of them. Why didn’t he tell her? Maybe she wouldn’t have felt like such a freak if he’d told her. She was about to say as much when she heard the high-pitched music of the ring tone coming from her cell just inside the house on the table on the deck.
“We’re not done. I’ll be right back,” she said, as she ran to answer it.
Grace ran past the overstuffed chairs inside the double doors, trying not to slip on the wooden floors, and picked up her cell off the table in the foyer. It was her mom.
“Hi, Mom.”
“How are you doing?” The tone of her mother’s voice was soft. Her mom actually sounded like she cared—a smidgeon.
“Better. I’m at the manor. Swimming.” Not used to Laney being motherly, she kept her answer short.
“I guess you’ll be moving now,” her mother said abruptly, as if she was resolved, accepting the inevitable.
“I…I haven’t really thought about that yet.” Gosh, she’d only inherited the manor today and her mother already had her moving out.
“Well.” Her mother paused. “It’s something you should start thinking about.” Was she trying to push her out the door? Her nearly eighteen-year-old daughter had the means to take care of herself, so it was time to kick her to the curb even though she hadn’t graduated from high school yet? How nice for her mother, she could finally be rid of her. Grace didn’t want to fight tonight, so she bit her tongue. Hard.
“Um, okay. I’ll start thinking about it, but I gotta go. I have company. I’ll talk to you later.”
Grace pushed the End button, not giving her mother a chance to say good-bye or anything else. Then she put the phone down and went back to the pool.
Quentin was right where she left him, in the lounge chair facing hers, elbows propped on his knees. Traces of water no longer trickled down his skin and his hair was completely dry and