During forty years with Diana, we raised Adrian, Celia, and Thomas. I gave them everything money could provide, but never taught them to value anything else.
After Diana died and my health failed, I traced your pension records and learned where you lived. I chose this nursing home because you were here.
My hands shook. Even our first meeting had been arranged.
I was afraid you would turn away if I admitted who I was. So I waited beneath the oak tree with a chessboard and the tea you liked. I wanted to know my daughter.
Asking you to marry me was also my attempt to protect what I intended to leave you. I believed the legal protection of a spouse would prevent my other children from taking it.
The shipping interests, properties, and private funds total seventy-four million dollars. That fortune began with the life I abandoned. I wanted it returned to you.
