Benjamin didn’t answer straightaway, but when he did, she could sense his hesitation. ‘Rose, there’s something I never told you, when you asked me about your great-grandmother.’
She settled back on the sofa to listen, still nursing her glass of wine and with her feet tucked up beneath her. She had a feeling this was something she wanted to hear from the awkward way he was looking at her.
‘When I was just a boy of maybe six or seven, I saw my great-grandfather, Felipe, kiss Valentina. It was only once, and I never mentioned it to anyone because I didn’t really understand what I was seeing, but I’ve never forgotten the way they looked at each other.’
Rose felt her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. ‘And you’re sure it was them?’
‘I’d been down at the stables with my father. Valentina was very generously his patron for many years, so we were often there, and I’d always been curious about her. I remember walking the long way home so I could go past her house, and I saw them sitting on the veranda, and I’ve never forgotten the way my great-grandfather looked at her before he kissed her.’
‘Did they see you?’
He shook his head. ‘No, I hid so they couldn’t see me, and I never told anyone about what I saw until just a few days ago.’
‘You’ve told someone other than me?’
‘I mentioned it to my dad just last week, and he suggested we visit Valentina’s previous lawyer. He thinks he might have the answers you’re searching for,’ Benjamin said. ‘I feel like maybe my dad knew they were linked romantically at some point, but if he knows he’s not saying anything.’
‘Do you think it might finally solve the mystery about how my grandmother ended up being adopted from Hope’s House?’
‘Perhaps. But regardless, I wanted you to know. It didn’t seem right to keep it secret from you.’
‘Thank you,’ Rose said, sighing as she tried to piece everything together. ‘You know, your great-grandfather has come up more than once, but whatever happened between them doesn’t explain the questions I have.’
‘Would you be annoyed if I told you I’d left a message to see if we can see him tomorrow?’
‘The lawyer?’
‘Valentina’s original lawyer died some years ago, but his son took over the practice. I believe the lawyer you’ve been dealing with is his grandson.’
‘But Luis told me he didn’t know anything, that there were no records.’
‘Maybe he doesn’t, but I still think we should try to visit his father at his house tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps it’s a dead end, but the very least we can do is try to see what he knows.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You don’t need to do any of this, but it means a lot to me that you’re helping.’
‘It’s my way of saying that I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘Sorry? For what?’
‘For everything that happened before you left,’ he said, taking her hand and pressing it to his lips. ‘For not telling you how much you meant to me before I let you walk away.’
Rose watched as his mouth hovered over her knuckles. ‘You’re already forgiven, but feel free to keep trying to make it up to me.’
Benjamin laughed and jumped to his feet, scooping her up into his arms as she fought against him, protesting but at the same time hoping he never took his hands from her body.
The next day, she sat with Benjamin in front of the old lawyer, at his home near the city. He’d been reluctant to take an appointment with her, but when Rose had pointed out what a long history her family had of using his family’s law firm, not to mention that her intention was to continue that relationship, he’d finally relented. And now she was at last hoping to piece together the rest of Valentina’s life.
‘I wasn’t sure if there’d be any resemblance, but when I think back to what Valentina looked like as a young woman…’
Rose smiled politely. She was fairly certain he was trying to flatter her, but the only thing she was interested in was whether he could help her solve the final piece of the puzzle when it came to her family’s secrets.
‘I was told that your son, Luis, Valentina’s most recent lawyer, didn’t know about my great-grandmother’s personal life,’ she said, ‘but I have an inkling that you might know more about how she came to place her baby for adoption all those years ago.’
He gave her a stern kind of look, as if she were asking something that she shouldn’t, but when Benjamin cleared his throat beside her, as if to encourage the man to speak, he finally sighed and uncrossed his arms.
‘Look, I only know what my father shared with me, and it wasn’t a lot,’ he said. ‘He represented Basilio Santiago before his death, and then Valentina when she came to him as a young girl in need of assistance. She became his most important client, just as Basilio had once been, and he remained her lawyer until the day he retired. Even then, he kept working for her for some time, until eventually she became my client.’ He paused. ‘She was very loyal, and due to the relationship she had with my father, she never withdrew her business from our firm.’
‘When you say that your father assisted her,’ Rose said, ‘what exactly do you mean? Did he help her with the adoption?’
