Chapter 43
Sylvia Cortez spoke in broken English, a little girl on either side of her on the worn sofa. “I don’t understand.”
Jessa rubbed her stomach, the size of which had easily doubled in the last three weeks alone. With just a month to go until her due date, she smiled at one of the girls and thought of her own daughter. “Is there someone who can translate for us?” she asked.
Sylvia spoke in Spanish to the taller of the two girls, who ran out the front door. Sylvia turned back to Jessa. “You like coffee? Decaf?”
“No, thank you. I’m fine.” She picked up the book, gently fingering its pages. Logan had found Maria Elena’s next of kin after an exhaustive search, and Jessa knew it was unlikely this family had ever met their distant cousin, but Maria Elena was about to give them a great gift nonetheless.
A tall, handsome boy came inside with the girl who’d gone in search of a translator. “Juan,” said the girl.
Jessa stood and shook his hand. “My name is Jessa McConnell, and I’ve been looking for Sylvia for a long time.” She handed the book to Sylvia with a smile. “She’s been given a great inheritance from a distant cousin.”
Jessa explained who Maria Elena was and what had happened to her. The boy’s eyes went wide as he repeated what she’d said in Spanish.
“This book proves Maria Elena was entitled to a one-eighth share of a large law firm in Boston.”
She nodded to the boy, who translated again.
“The lawyers would like to buy out your share for fourteen million dollars.”
The boy gave a loud yelp and Jessa laughed. Sylvia leaned forward on the edge of the couch. Jessa watched Sylvia’s face as the boy translated the good news.
The woman burst out screaming and the girls broke out in smiles. “Inheritance?” Sylvia asked, reaching for Jessa’s hands.
“Yes. An inheritance just for you and your family.”
Sylvia jumped up and down, laughing, pulling Jessa’s hands with her. “Rich?”
Jessa laughed. “Yes, you’re rich.” She thought of the terrible things the inheritance had brought to her own life, but then again, she wasn’t the rightful heir.
And it brought you Jax.
They’d been spending almost all of their time together. At first she’d insisted he not stay over more than twice a week, as if the boundary could keep her heart out of danger. But she was never able to push him out the door when all she wanted was to snuggle into his arms.
Now Jax was asking her to marry him, and as much as she didn’t like him working for HERO Force and him traveling so much, she knew she’d be hard pressed to say no much longer.
She just had to find a way to deal with the fear.
She drove to the cemetery and sat on a bench beside Maria Elena’s grave, telling the other woman about Sylvia and the family who would receive the money from the law firm settlement.
“Thank you for letting me use your name, Maria. You changed my life for the better.”
Jax had told her something similar once, that his life was better with her in it, and she smiled at the memory. Her eyes went back to the gravestone. Maria Elena was born just one year before Jessa.
Life is short. Don’t you want to live it to its fullest?
It was so hard to separate Jax from HERO Force in her mind, to peel apart the man and the danger he surrounded himself with every day.
“What if he gets hurt? What if he dies?”
I will be happy I loved him for as long as I could. Just like Ralph.
No one was guaranteed a long life. No one was guaranteed anything beyond this moment.
“And I want to share this moment with Jax,” she said. She wiped a tear from her cheek. She wasn’t going to waste another moment, not a single one. “Thanks, Maria.”
Moving her awkward body as fast as she could, she made it back to her car and drove to HERO Force headquarters.