“In this instance, my mother gave her several thousand dollars and the story I’ve just told you. She promised Gloria that it was the last penny she would ever see from her, the last word she would ever speak to her. My mother rarely, very rarely, goes back on a promise of any kind. Gloria would have known that.”

“So she hit on Ray Quinn instead,” Phillip concluded.

“I don’t know when she decided to find him. It may have stewed in her mind for a time. Now she would consider this the reason she was never loved, never wanted, never accepted as she felt she deserved to be. I imagine she blamed your father for that. Someone else is always to blame when Gloria has difficulties.”

“So she found him.” Phillip rose from his chair to pace. “And, true to form, demanded money, made accusations, threatened. Only this time she used her own son as the hammer.”

“Apparently. I’m sorry. I should have realized you weren’t aware of all the facts. I suppose I assumed your father had told you more of it.”

“He didn’t have time.” Cam’s voice was cold and bitter.

“He told me he was waiting for some information,” Ethan remembered. “That he’d explain everything once he found out.”

“He must have tried contacting your mother.” Phillip pinned Sybill with a look. “He would have wanted to speak with her, to know.”

“I can’t tell you that. I simply don’t know.”

“I know,” Phillip said shortly. “He would have done what he felt was right. For Seth first, because he’s a child. But he would have wanted to help Gloria. To do that, he needed to talk to her mother, find out what had happened. It would have mattered to him.”

“I can only tell you what I know or what’s been told to me.” Sybill lifted her hands, let them fall. “My family has behaved badly.” It was weak, she knew. “All of us,” she said to Seth. “I apologize for myself, and for them. I don’t expect you to . . .” What? she wondered, and let it go. “I’ll do anything I can to help.”

“I want people to know.” Seth’s eyes swam when he lifted them to her face. “I want people to know he was my grandfather. They’re saying things about him, and it’s wrong. I want people to know I’m a Quinn.”

Sybill could only nod. If this was all he asked of her, she would make certain she gave it. Drawing a breath, she looked at Anna. “What can I do?”

“You’ve made a good start already.” Anna glanced at her watch. She had other cases and another appointment scheduled in ten minutes. “Are you willing to make the information you’ve given us official, and public?”

“Yes.”

“I have an idea how to start that ball rolling.”

The embarrassment factor couldn’t be weighed, Sybill reminded herself. She could and would live with the whispers and the speculative looks that were bound to come her way once she followed through on Anna’s suggestion.