Free Semiautomatic Marriage by Leona Karr

shoulders stood there, staring at Carolyn as if he’d seen a ghost. As he walked slowly toward her, he breathed, “Dear God in heaven, it’s little Alicia, all grown up.”
    Carolyn quickly stood. “Uncle Jasper?”
    There was such a fullness in her chest she didn’t know if she could keep breathing. He was searching her face with an intensity that seemed to bore into her very soul. Della seemed ready to say something to break the weighted moment, when he sighed heavily. “It’s true, then, what Arthur believed? You’re Alicia’s child?”
    Carolyn nodded and tried to find words to tell him that she was as stunned as he was to learn she was his sister’s child.
    “Where have you been all these years? And why did your mother break our hearts the way she did?” His tone was pointedly accusing, as if years of rancor had finally found a release.
    “I don’t know anything about my mother except what I’ve been told,” Carolyn responded firmly, lowering the arms she had been prepared to put around her uncle in a hug. His glare didn’t invite any expression of joy or acceptance. Just the sight of her seemed to ignite a long-simmering fire, and Carolyn thought with an edge of bitterness thatmaybe her birthright was something she would have been better off without.
    Della moved forward, purposefully edging Jasper to one side. “Carolyn, I’m sorry we weren’t here to greet you and your husband.”
    Adam was ready to jump in and protect Carolyn from both Jasper and Della, if need be. He decided that Della was a woman who was making the best of being fifty. Her dark hair was fashionably cut, curled and colored. Her eyebrows had been precisely thinned, her lashes darkened with mascara and her bold mouth shaped by glossy lipstick. A simple tunic dress was cut in straight lines that flattered her thickening figure. There was a commanding presence about her that warned Adam to be on his toes.
    “I’m Della Denison,” she said as her dark eyes settled on him for the first time.
    “I bet they already know who you are, Mom,” Buddy said, his light-brown eyes sparkling in obvious enjoyment of the little scene. “It’s my guess there aren’t any surprises in this little gathering. We’re all just one happy family, aren’t we?”
    He winked at Carolyn as if sharing a private joke with her, and in a way she was grateful for his inappropriate, juvenile behavior. At least it was honest.
    “I’m sorry if seeing me has distressed you, Uncle Jasper,” Carolyn said, giving her attention to him, instead of to his paramour. “I know this situation is a difficult one. I wish we could have met while my grandfather was still alive.”
    “I can’t believe Arthur kept such a secret from me,” he lamented. “Even though my sister, Alicia,and I weren’t very close—there was a ten-year age difference—I still deserved to know.”
    “He didn’t say anything about having found me and providing me with financial support through medical school?” Carolyn prodded. She was anxious to find the tiniest thread of connection between her and the man who had made her his heir.
    “Not a word,” Della answered in her curt way before Jasper could say a word. “But that was just Arthur. I worked for your grandfather for nearly ten years and was always finding out things he was trying to keep secret. Of course, this situation tops them all.” She didn’t bother to hide the resentment in her tone.
    “Easy, Mom,” Buddy said with an apologetic look at Carolyn.
    Della ignored her son. “Arthur had a habit of not letting the right hand know what the left was doing. Believe me, it wasn’t easy trying to keep things running smoothly in the company when he kept holding things back.”
    “Arthur never interfered in my lab,” Jasper said as if he felt the need to defend his father. “He liked the way I handled everything.”
    “Then why didn’t he leave you fifty-one percent of the shares, instead of only thirty-nine? You were his