Adopted

"Oh that's wonderful," Monique said, kissing both of them. "That is such a sound idea."

Kelly walked off to give Hayden the chance to talk to Monique about plans Kelly had for the girls that evening. She found Ella happily talking to the other girls and her grandma while Sandra worked on Jacki's hair.

"Come on Ella, I'll do your hair. Run and get your comb and brush. May we borrow a pair of scissors Mrs Malcolm?"

"Do you think you should cut Ella's hair without consulting her mother?"

"Yes. I don't intend decimating it."

"My word you are a confident lady. When you are working on Ella I'll tell you what I remember about your mother."

"Oh Mrs Malcolm, you darling."

Mrs Malcolm practically ran to fetch the scissors.

* * *

When Kelly and Sandra were returning to Saratoga Springs after lunch, Sandra said, "You must view that as a most successful weekend?"

"It was beyond my expectations. I'm so happy."

"I had a great weekend and when both girls where clinging to you not wanting you to leave I saw the way Monique was looking at you. Obviously Ella had been burbling on to her about last night."

"Yes she did have a great time and I talked to Jacki when she commented that Ella appeared to be coming out of her shell. She had no idea whether or not Ella realized it a gap was opening between them and the impact could be lessened with good management."

"You often surprise me Kelly. You are a sole child. How can you know about such things?"

"I can see it because I grew up as an only child."

"Ohmigod, of course. Are you pleased Monique practically loves you."

"Very pleased and she's probably hoping her daughters will grow up acting a bit like me."

"You mean like you totally. You are a fabulous role model you know."

"What, you mean me?"

"Jesus, I'm actually telling you something you didn't already know or suspect."

After dinner Kelly called her mom to report on her weekend away and they chatted for almost an hour.

* * *

A couple of week ends later both sets of parents arrived to stay in Saratoga Springs for the weekend and watched Kelly and Sandra play soccer in opposing teams on Saturday morning. Claudia, whose parents lived in Maine, was invited to join them for meals and went out with them on Saturday night.

The reunions were joyously emotional, at least for the women. Sandra's father Paul was somewhat more conservative than Stephen and said to his daughter she was looking well and happy whereas Stephen, looking at Kelly's breasts, said she was putting on weight, drawing a sharp rebuke of "Stephen!" from his wife and a scowl from his daughter.

Kelly and Leonie looked at each other, rolled their eyes and everything was sweet again.

Later when Stephen and Kelly were alone for a few minutes he said, "It's okay with your mother but I'm not okay about you not coming home for the summer."

Kelly was shocked having expected his support. Her mind buzzed like a circular saw and she came up with what she initially thought was a stupid counter-punch.

"Daddy do you have it off with other women?"

She saw Stephen's eyes bulge and he sat forward in a fake-sounding coughing fit.

Kelly stared at him fascinated.

He looked up at her and said submissively although ignoring her question, "Well it will give you opportunity to get to know you lost relatives better and international experience for a freshman in business practice even if it is only Canada ought to impress your tutors."

"Thanks dad. Just make sure you keep your tracks covered, eh?"

He looked at Kelly unblinkingly as she thought an accomplished attorney should and she smiled and blew him a kiss. He remained looking a little unimpressed with her when Leonie breezed up to them with fresh coffee and said, "What has you two spellbound?"

"I was asking daddy about his sex life, er before marriage."

Stephen's eyes focused on his daughter appeared to be smoldering.

"That's a closed book as far as I'm concerned darling. My only interest is in his sex life after I entered his life."

"I'm sure daddy wouldn't think of straying mom, not the way you two go at it."

Kelly's parents looked at each other embarrassed.

That was the end of that conversation.

After sipping coffee, Leonie asked, "Is there any particular male in your life darling?"

"Well not until this week. There's a guy called Donald who has dated me twice and wishes to date me again."

"But that's quite normal isn't it?"

"Mom!"

"Oh sorry, where did I go wrong on that one?"

Tammy who's rejoined then said, "It hasn't changed since our day Leonie. College guys are still engaged in babe hopping or so I understand."

"Kelly?"

"Yes mom, the majority aspire to keep on plugging away."

"Kelly that's foul."

"It's the way it is mom, probably even for seminarians."

"Kelly!"

"Sorry mum." Kelly said, grinning at Tammy who had only just managed to grab the table to stop herself rolling off the bench seat and on to the grass, her face turning almost purple from unrestrained laughter.

* * *

Kelly met Donald Watson who'd found she'd played field hockey at high school. He attempted to enroll her for hockey but she said she had committed to soccer.

"But why, you apparently excelled at hockey."

"What sport do you play Donald?"

"Soccer."

Kelly smiled and he said what and then, "Jesus, outsmarted by a woman."

"Oh you'll become use to that as you immerse more in the outside world David."

"It's Donald. You are all right."

"Oh really. What part of me do you like best Donald?"

He looked at her breasts, licked his lips and said, "Er your brightness that comes with a tad of aggressiveness."

"Oooh Donald. You must ask me for a date."

"I um have someone I'm working on."

"Working on. Oh Donal, swap her for me. We'll do it tonight if you are looking for that sort of activity."

"T-tonight?"

"Yes Donald or is there some reason that prevents you maintaining an erection on Monday nights?"

Donald swallowed and said he'd meet her in the quad at 7:30.

"Fine, bring condoms."

Although Donald was only about Kelly's stature, he was well hung. In face when she first saw the saw of it Kelly couldn't avoid a gasp and that pleased him immensely. They banged away on and off for three hours and Kelly finally left him almost legless while she bounced back to her room feeling as she'd been sexually satisfied for the first time by a male.

They remained together for almost two months although to Kelly's disappointment she found that didn't set a new college record for a pairing.

CHAPTER 5

Kelly returned home to Manhattan with Sandra for four days when the spring semester ended in mid-May and then flew from Newark to Toronto where Hayden met her at the airport just after 8:00 am.

They kissed.

"It's so lovely to see you again," he smiled. "Monique apologizes for not being here to meet you by will call you later this morning. They have a huge rush job on their hands and the external auditors arrive about now."

Hayden loaded her luggage into the trunk and asked, "Did you leave anything behind?"

She just laughed and said wait until his daughters were a few years older and packed to go away on vacation.

They went straight to the office.

The architectural practice was located on the third and fourth floors of a conservatively designed building of around twenty floors in King Street West, the core of the city's financial district. Hayden introduced Kelly to the office manager and left. Mrs Philips introduced Kelly to all senior personnel and everyone in accounts before Kelly was signed on after producing her documentation including her work permit granted on arrival under the student program she was traveling under. She felt like a fish out of water, not knowing anyone and scarcely knowing even Hayden.

Suddenly an attractive young woman of around her age appeared beside Kelly.

"Hi Kelly I'm Phyllis Chambers an architectural student assigned to your uncle's team. He has asked me to keep an eye on you and to introduce you to the city socially."

"And me likewise for negotiating this office and coping with the lunchtime rush," said a blonde for four desks behind Kelly who Kelly remembered was called Carla Girard. "I'm a freshman, going for my BCom and like you here for work experience.

All at once Kelly's confidence returned. "Oh this is great and please accept me for being American and from NYC of all places."

"It's my favorite city after Toronto," Carla said and the older Phyllis smiled and said. "We would we Canadians be without the US?"

Kelly found that refreshing and hoped she would do nothing to alter those agreeable opinions.

Shortly after Kelly returned from coffee break her cell phone went.

"Hi darling, welcome to my home town."

"Oh thanks Monique. I'm rather taken with what I've seen so far, having expected a few stone houses round a duck pond."

"Now that's a tease if I've ever heard one. I'll be able to take you to lunch tomorrow but not today I'm afraid."

"Your apology was delivered to me, thank you. Is your man reliable?"

"Actually being an architect he can be a pain being so fussy to have things right but in the main he's a very good boy. Oh god the girls became next to impossible over the past twenty-four hours about your imminent arrival. You'll be mobbed when you arrive home."

"Well that interest in me will pass."

"Oh yeah. Must dash. I look forward to tonight chatting over drinks."

* * *

Driving Kelly home to Victoria Park that evening Hayden said he usually traveled by subway. Although the office was only twenty minutes away by car, that was at off-peak times. Kelly couldn't help but notice they were crawling away from the office. Of course she was aware Toronto had a population of around 2.5 million and that meant it was only a little smaller than Chicago.

Ella rushed out to greet them screaming to the others and waving. Monique and Jacki were right behind her.

The girls and their mom also hugged and kissed Hayden and it pleased Kelly to see that, reminding her she and Leonie would always rush out to greet Stephen who usually arrived home later than this.

She was surprised to find the house was old, Tudor in style. She'd expected an architect to be living in a glass and street creation. She found out later it had been Monique's parent's home where she and her sister had lived all their life until they both left home.

The three-level house was huge and Kelly was amazed how it had been modernized inside with little of the original remaining, apart from the main stairway and some dark-stained oak paneling and the ceilings and lighting remained untouched except in the kitchen, family room, TV room and study. The kitchen looked straight out of a kitchen design magazine. Monique had designed it, adding the rebuild and total new fit-out had cost 'an arm and a leg'.

"Let's get your luggage up to the guest suite before we have a drink," Monique enthused. "Oh it will be so lovely having you here all summer."

That really gave Kelly the real feeling of being welcomed because Monique had not been emotionally charged when she said it.

A week later Kelly answered her office phone and the mail caller said, "Would you like to come for lunch on Saturday."

"Excuse me the invitation sounds lovely by who's speaking."

"Your Uncle Nolan."

"Sorry but you must have the wrong... um oh, I apologize. You must be Nolan Shutter."

"Yes. Well?"

"I'd be a fool to decline so yes, I do accept with thanks."

"Hayden will tell you how to get to our residence."

Kelly shrugged and thought perhaps his wife might not be so curt. Nolan really was uncivil to speak to her like that and end the call so abruptly. Some people really were pigs. She found later Hayden had suggested to Nolan he invite his niece to visit.

Kelly drove to the Shutter's home in Monique Ford Focus and managed not to get lost. The couple came out to greet you, both finding it difficult to smile for some reason. They kept their distance as Nolan said hi and introduced Kelly to his wife Sadie. Kelly handed flowers to Sadie who managed a light smile and Nolan said thanks when handed a bottle of wine and immediately said they only drank red wine.

"That is red wine, a Pinot Noir from California."

"Never heard of it."

"Oh I'm so happy to be giving you a new drinking experience Nolan."

He flicked a look at Kelly and said Sadie didn't drink wine. Kelly offered no response.

They immediately sat down for lunch. Monique had said they didn't have children and lived very much to themselves.

Nolan poured the Pinot for Kelly and himself and held it up and said it looked weakly colored.

Kelly said she believed that was a characteristic of the variety.

Nolan took a sip and screwed up his face as if he'd just tasted cat's piss but then his face changed, he took a bigger sip, smacked his lips and said "Jesus!"

"I was hoping you'd like it," Kelly smiled.

They asked her what she was doing in Canada and seemed surprise that she was doing a business degree and yet working in an architectural office.

"The practice has to be driven as a business in order to succeed," Kelly said and Sadie said, "That's logical Nolan."

Sadie and a friend ran a small clothing store, selling to people at the lower end of the market. "We are working class people in this area, not like where you are living with Hayden and his wife.:

Hello, Kelly thought, 'his wife' rather than Monique? Did that indicate Sadie was envious of her high profile Monique? Kelly had already read a newspaper and two magazine articles referring to design successes by Monique Shutter. Nolan was a vice-principal at a private high school and yet to Kelly appeared surprisingly unworldly. Perhaps that was only because he was defensive in her company.

"I had lunch with Hayden on Monday and he mentioned you with living with them and working in his office," Nolan said. "We meet every couple of months to keep in touch. He comes to the village restaurant near the school because I don't have the flexibility he has with his work time."

"Flexibility yes but he works very long hour," Kelly said. "He works in his office at home on calculations and other stuff to midnight at least three nights a week."

"He works that long?" Nolan said in surprise. "I thought he had it sweet?"

Sadie then came out with it. "Are you here in Canada to apologize to the Shutter family for what you did to them?"

The couple looked at Kelly intently but she was strong. "And what am I supposed to have done to the Shutter family Sadie?"

"Your birth caused the death of Connie."

Kelly said calmly, "And the little innocent me, aged three weeks, was responsible for the actions of my mother?"

"She had been carrying you in her arms at the time of the accident," Nolan said. "If you had not been born she would not have been there in that place at that time. She would have been in a classroom teaching children. That tragedy had a devastating effect on our family because Connie was so loved, being our bright light, and after her death mom was never the same again... it seemed her light had gone out."

"Cannot you separate emotion from reality?"

Nolan stared at Kelly and said she should not make excuses.

"So your position on this is fixed; you blame all of this on me, a three-week old baby?"

"Put like that, yes."

Kelly was seething. With her chicken salad not yet finished she rose and said politely, "Thank you for inviting me here today but I cannot tolerate anymore of this brainless accusation being heaped on me. I recommend a psychologist to try to cleanse your minds. Goodbye."

Sadie and Nolan sat motionless and muted. Kelly let herself at and drove off, still seething but proud of herself she had not ripped into them, shouting abuse and calling them ignorant and other names. Perhaps Nolan had been psychologically blighted by the tragic loss of his sister and the way in which it had happened but for goodness sake, that was eighteen years ago. Get a life Nolan, seek help.

Kelly slowed down her speed and her racing heart and was relieved when half a mile later went through a laser speed trap. "Oink, oink," she muttered to herself and then realized if anyone would have been to blame for her speeding it would have to be her. "Oink, oink. Sorry officer; you are only doing your job."

Monique kissed her and asked, "How did it go."

"Dreary, almost uncivilized and a pain in the butt."

Monique smiled and said they were having friends to dinner that night, a lively couple who'd cheer Kelly up. "Nolan and Sadie= would have been only interested in seeing what you were like. I thought you'd run into a brick wall but thought I should not tell you that just in case you managed to negotiate even a truce.

"There was no chance of that happening; none at all."

"The key is Victor. Win him over and it's all over but go face to face with Seth first."

"But Hayden more or less suggested Victor would be my stumbling block?"

"Darling my husband is an architect. What does he know about the finer points of manipulating human beings?"

"He successfully courted you didn't he?"

Monique laughed and said Kelly was a mile off mark. "You have no idea how handsome and athletic Hayden was eighteen years ago. I went for it and nailed him just before the tragedy and I like to think it was my influence that held him together over that. After the family burial Hayden wanted to marry me as quickly as possible, that he realized just how much he needed me."

"Oh that's a really sweet story. You two seem to me to be a perfect match and I think part of the reason is you have intense primary interest in your respective careers and give each other breathing space."

"You know a lot for an 18-year-old Kelly. I cannot fault that assessment. Come on let's go shopping. I need new underwear and you need a present. Both of the girls have gone off with friends."

Winning over the brothers to accept her was proving more difficult that Kelly had expected. If she failed to move Seth she faced returning home empty-handed, apart from having established a great relationship with Hayden and his family.

But Kelly sighed because she knew she hadn't established a great relationship with Hayden. She could claim to have done that with his family but emotionally Hayden remained at arm's length to her, unlike how she would expect an uncle to react to his niece. It appeared that Hayden regarded her little more than someone who worked in his office and someone other than family who currently lived in his house.

On Friday night Monique returned from taking the two girls to a movie the wanted to see and Kelly had already seen it in New York. She sat talking with Hayden over drinks and made them supper, grilling chopped micro-waved potato and bacon pieces and then cooked them in an omelet. That was one of the few dishes her father could cook.

She served it with thick crusty bread and Hayden raved about it, making her think perhaps it was a male-oriented dish because she thought of it as being greasy and fattening. He'd eaten most of it and sat back replete. Without appearing to think about it, Kelly realized this was the time to talk to Hayden about it, to try for the real breakthrough.

"Hayden, do you mind listening to me for half an hour?"

He grinned, holding out his glass. "Another wine please and I am a dedicated listener."

Fetching the hand-held digital voice recorder from Hayden's office and switching it to record, Kelly said she would like him to hear about her childhood from her perspective and he nodded and said proceed.

She said no blame had ever been placed on Connie for stepping out on to the road in front of that car that police enquiries had established had not been speeding.