Blame It On Paris

That was what Will discovered when he first took the job. It wasn't real work. It paid the rent; it was easy. Mostly he just had to set stuff in motion and then sit down with Yves, explain what to do, where to go from there. There was nothing about the job tying Will down. The stuff was stressful for Yves, a guy who could be reduced to tears by the simplest business decisions-who could figure? But occasionally, like today. Will was forced to exert a little serious energy.

Calls had come in from Canada. Germany. Denmark. Then something had gone wrong with a shipment arrival. Then certain packaging decisions had to be made. Yves got upset at that kind of thing.

Didn't bother Will. It was just business, but he was still fairly wrung dry by the time he vaulted the steps and pushed open the door.

'Kelly?'

He stopped almost immediately. Something was wrong. The place looked the way it had before Kelly showed up here. It was all…tidy. No lights, no smells, no messes, no sounds. No ultragirl perfume invading his space.

Alarm stole the smile from his face. 'Kelly?'

He dropped the newspaper, his jacket. Poked his head in the living room, thinking maybe she was outside on the balcony and that's why it was all so quiet-but no. He checked the bathroom, thinking maybe she was taking a long soak in the tub, but she wasn't there, either.

'Kel?'

'I'm in here, Will.'

He saw her even before he heard her voice. That single glance, though, made a double dose of alarm quicken his pulse.

Kelly wasn't quiet.

She was curled up in the desk chair in his mini office. The alcove was about the only place in the whole flat that was windowless and dark, nothing nice about it. It was just a hole to locate his computer and work with no distractions. At a glance, he could see she wasn't crying. She was sitting absolutely still in the dim light, with her legs tucked under her.

Motionless… Kelly. Quiet… Kelly. No animation, no wild zest for life, no heart hanging out there for any fool heart-thief to take advantage of. Like him.

Hell. The look of her hurt Will like a stab in his gut.

'What happened?'

He hunkered down next to her. wanting to be at her eye level. Her expression reflected that something had seriously shaken her.

She said, 'I met my father.'

'The one who's dead?'

'Yeah.' She gulped. 'It was quite a shock.'

'Well, hell. I imagine it was for him, too.'

She looked startled at his humor, but then the shocked stiffness seemed to loosen in her shoulders and she let out a little laugh. Very little, but still a laugh. 'Oh God, Will, I'm so glad I had you to come home to, you to tell.'

He lurched back to his feet, fetched glasses, a wine bottle, the opener. He could have opened it in the kitchen, but that would have taken a minute or two. He wasn't willing to leave her for that long, so he carried it back to the office and immediately started working on the corkscrew.

'I was afraid of your going alone there,' he admitted.

'Why? You couldn't possibly have known-'

'That your dad was alive, no. Of course not. I don't know anything about your family. But when you told me the address, I was kind of taken aback. That neighborhood is known for money. Big money. No piddling millionaires. I mean the serious, major-fortune people.' He wrenched the cork free, poured a glass for her, handed it over. 'Nothing bad about anything in that picture. But somehow I didn't think you were expecting…'

'A fortune in the family history? You've got that right. You know what else? I've got two brothers. Two half brothers, anyway. Who hated me on sight. I didn't pick up all the language, but I'm pretty sure they immediately concluded that I was a gold-digging, lying bitch. Well. Either a bitch or a camel. I've always gotten those two words in French confused for some reason…'

Will forgot all about pouring his own wine. The idea of someone, anyone, hurting Kelly put a growl in his throat. Growing up with three sisters, he'd gotten over any desire to save damsels in distress. Chivalry was nothing more than a land mine. It was designed to heap trouble and responsibility on a guy's head until he sank from the weight of it, so the sudden instinct to bash Kelly's half brothers was disturbing. He hadn't slid into his old, bad habits for years now.

'Maybe you 'd better start at the beginning.' he said.

'That's just the problem. I thought I knew the beginning. The story my mom told me was that my parents met when my mom was in college, doing a year at the Sorbonne. I thought they fell in love, got married, moved back home to South Bend. I thought my dad made a trip back to Paris to see his parents when my mom was pregnant. I thought there was some kind of train accident. That he died along with his parents. That there were no Rochard relatives left.'

Will wanted to wince on her behalf. 'Hmm…I take it a few of those things aren't exactly true?'

'Will?'

'What, honey?' He couldn't believe he was using the word honey. As if they'd known each other a bunch of years. As if he were into comforting her, instead of having a red-hot illicit affair. Yet. what the hell. He got up, took her-and the wine-and settled them on his lap in the office chair.

'My mom and dad weren't married. They were never married. In fact, my father-the one who's still alive- already had a wife. Not now, because she died about four years ago. But he was married to her way back when, which is exactly how I have two brothers who are older than me.'

'Uh-oh.' Will murmured, and stroked a hand through her tumble of hair. 'A little shock. Finding out you're illegitimate?'

'Cripes, I don't care about that. This isn't the Middle Ages. Mistakes happen. So I was a mistake. That's all right. But it's killing me that I didn't know I had a father all these years…that my mom lied to me all this time.'

'A pretty big lie,' Will admitted.

'She slept with a married man.'

'Maybe she didn't know he was married.'

'Maybe she didn't. But she knew he was alive. She knew I had a living father.'

He couldn't say anything to that.

'My brothers… Well. It seems my father has a ton of money. And he's developed a heart condition. His two sons were visiting him today, that's how they saw me, although I'm pretty sure I'll have to come up with DNA for them to believe we're related. But I think they knew the truth, because for damn sure. I knew, the minute we looked at one another. We have the same eyes, same hair, same mouth, same coloring. Will?'

'What, honey?'

'They thought I was showing up because I was after my father's money.'

'It's a shame your brothers are stupid. You must have gotten all the IQ genes from your mom.'

'Don't make me laugh. This is awful. They didn't want to let me in the door, just started yelling at me in French right off the bat. In fact, it was the yelling that brought my father from somewhere upstairs in the first place, to see what was going on. He took one look at me-'

'Listen. No crying allowed here. We talked about this before, remember?'

'He didn't get it. Until I mentioned my mother's name. Then there was this look on his face. He knew. He knew I was his daughter.'

Will winced again. It didn't take a super brain to figure out the cretin had hardly greeted her with open arms.

'It was such a mess.' Kelly dragged a hand through her hair, turned to him with tear-blurry eyes. 'Obviously his sons never knew there was a sibling from the wrong side of the blanket. They started yelling at him, then. I couldn't stay. Couldn't leave. Didn't know what I was supposed to do.'

'So what did you do?'