Cat in a hot pink Pursuit

it?”
    “Temple.”
    “Odd name for a girl.” She sipped again, and sighed. “But they’re doing that these days.”
    “It suits her.”
    “That’s just because you’re used to it. Because you like her. A lot. Don’t try to duck that. A mother knows. Maybe you can bring her up here for next Christmas.”
    “Maybe. Mother—”
    “I thought we’d gotten past that formal stuff. Krys doesn’t even call me ‘aunt’ anymore. In fact, we were out shopping and someone mistook us for sisters. Can you imagine?”
    “Yeah. You look... really great, Mom. Someone would probably mistake us for siblings too.”
    “I’d be honored to have such a handsome brother. Your uncles have all let beer bellies have their way with them. Don’t you do that.”
    “No chance. Uh, Mom, this person we’re going to meet, he didn’t know anything about what the lawyers arranged.”
    “You mean he was taken in the way I was?”
    “Well, he was pretty young back then too. That’s how I connected to him; he had no idea that they’d offered you the two-flat as a bribe to keep me and you out of the family. He was pretty shocked. And angry.”
    “Anyone decent would be. It’s not that I would have wanted anything more than some legitimate child support. The two-flat did help but it wasn’t a substitute for a simple acknowledgment. So how did you find this man with a conscience?”
    “A paralegal dropped a name she shouldn’t have.”
    “What would that have to do with it?”
    “It was my father’s name.”
    “Why would that mean anything to you?”
    “Because I saw a man who had that name. And he looked like me.”
    “Oh, Matt.” Her celebratory air crumbled. “That must have been so... shocking for you. I didn’t think that might happen. That any relatives would still be associated with that law firm. What... was he? To you.” She bit her lip, reached out a hand to his. “I’m so sorry, honey. I didn’t think what sending you there might mean. I was so selfish.”
    The old apologizing-for-existing Mira was back. As much as her concern touched him, her regression chilled him. Maybe this was a very bad idea, even though it had been hers. He could still head this off.
    “It was rough. I was way angrier than I thought I’d be. Then I found out that... members of the... other family had been duped too. It was the parents. Your parents. His parents. They took over and managed their errant kids, the hell with what the ones actually involved needed or wanted. Or what it would mean to me.”
    “You shouldn’t swear,” old Mira said primly, falling back on the party line.
    “I should do a lot more than that. I should dig up all those dead grandparents who decided what was best for my parents and hit them.”
    She looked shocked, then smiled nervously. “Berating the dead is a waste of time. You know that. If they’d have known you, they’d have been proud of you. My parents couldn’t quite get past your... manner of birth but they didn’t dislike you.”
    “Not a positive relationship, Mom. I was tolerated but I don’t remember them much.”
    She sighed and sipped her drink.
    “So,” he said, “given what a shock it was for me to meet a... relative, I’m thinking maybe you don’t need to go back like this. Maybe it’s enough to know not everybody in the family would have disowned us. That it was a Romeo and Juliet thing, where the older generation controlled the younger at a horrible cost.”
    “Romeo and Juliet.” Her smile softened her features to a girl’s dewy promise. “That’s right. That was the way it was. Have you ever glimpsed that connection so right the whole world fades away?”
    He wanted to temporize, as he always did on this one thorny subject but... his mother needed the truth, from everyone.
    “Yes.”
    Her eyebrows lifted. “Someday you’ll tell me more about that. Or maybe not. Someday maybe I’ll meet her.”
    “Mom, I’ve met yours.”
    “My what.”
    “Your person who made the world fade.”
    “You can’t have.”
    “I did.”
    “Someone close... a brother? Is that who we’re meeting here? I don’t know if I can stand to meet a brother.”
    “Mom.” He stretched both his hands across the table to cover hers, which were fanning and fidgeting with panic. “I’ve met him.”
    “He’s dead. Are you crazy?”
    “He’s not dead. That was a lie.”
    She stood, despite the heavy chair, pushing it back with her legs as if she didn’t feel the effort.
    “What