“I thought I was right to come down here and destroy you all,” Paul said quietly.
“But you chose not to. Thank you for that. I hope you and Ann will be very happy. Trey wants to try to make up not only for what he did but for what the whole family did to you and your mother. I don’t know if you can accept him, but I hope you do.”
She smiled and looked back at the carolers singing around the piano. “Since the first Paul Delaney, there’s only been one son per generation. You and Trey broke that tradition, as well. I don’t begrudge my son his half brother nor you yours. Maybe someday you and I can be friends.”
Without another word she walked past him into the salon and back to the party.
Paul stood looking out onto the winter garden until Ann found him. She slipped her arm through his. “Are you okay?”
“Karen said we’d broken the chain of bad choices.”
“Gram said we’d broken the curse on the house, too. Now it’s happy for the first time since the first Paul Delaney built it.”
“It’s scary to be so content. I keep waking up in the middle of the night afraid I’ll find you’ve disappeared, too.”
“No way. You’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future.” She kissed him gently on the cheek.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-3647-9
HOUSE OF STRANGERS
Copyright © 2003 by Carolyn McSparren.
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