“She never told him.” Sybill folded her hands as all eyes swung back to her. “She was furious. Perhaps she was frightened as well, but she was furious to find herself pregnant by a man she’d decided was unsuitable. She considered terminating the pregnancy. She’d met my father, and they had clicked.”

“He was suitable,” Cam concluded.

“I believe they suited each other.” Her voice chilled. They were her parents, damn it. She had to be left with something. “My mother was in a difficult and frightening position. She wasn’t a child. She was nearly twenty-five, but an unwanted and unplanned pregnancy is a wrenching episode for a woman of any age. In a moment of weakness, or despair, she confessed all of it to my father. And he offered her marriage. He loved her,” Sybill said quietly. “He must have loved her very much. They were married quickly and quietly. She never went back to Washington. She never looked back.”

“Dad never knew he had a daughter?” Ethan covered Grace’s hand with his.

“No, he couldn’t have. Gloria was three, nearly four when I was born. I can’t say what the relationship between her and my parents was like in those early years. I know that later on, she felt excluded. She was difficult and temperamental, demanding. Certainly she was wild. Certain standards of behavior were expected, and she refused to meet them.”

It sounded so cold, Sybill thought now. So unyielding. “In any case, she left home when she was still a teenager. Later, I discovered that both of my parents, and myself, sent her money, independently of each other. She would contact one of us and plead, demand, threaten, whichever worked. I wasn’t aware of any of this until Gloria called me last month, about Seth.”

Sybill paused a moment until she could compose her thoughts. “Before I came here, I flew to Paris to see my parents. I felt they needed to know. Seth was their grandchild, and as far as I knew, he’d been taken away from Gloria and was living with strangers. When I told my mother what had happened, and she refused to become involved, to offer any assistance, I was stunned and angry. We argued.” Sybill let out a short laugh. “She was surprised enough by that, I think, to tell me what I’ve just told you.”

“Gloria had to know,” Phillip pointed out. “She had to know Ray Quinn was her father or she’d never have come here.”

“Yes, she knew. A couple of years ago, she went to my mother when my parents were staying in D.C. for a few months. I can assume it was an ugly scene. From what my mother told me, Gloria demanded a large sum of money or she’d go to the press, to the police, to whoever would listen and accuse my father of sexual abuse, my mother of collusion in it. None of that is true,” Sybill said wearily. “Gloria always equated sex with power, and acceptance. She routinely accused men, particularly men in positions of authority, of molesting her.