Daddy held the door into the hospice for us, then went ahead of us to the nurses station. He introduced himself and the nurse told him Ms. Patterson w...uld be right with him and directed us to take seats.We went to one of the conversation areas. I sat on a love seat, figuring Laurie would sit next to me. She stayed on my lap and turned so she could see Daddy and the rest of the seats."Did you have a good breakfast, Laurie?" Uh huh. I had cereal and milk." Good for you. What kind of cereal?" The. . I mean sir" she giggled as the otherscrowded around them. "Now why do we not reverse this piece of trickerythat mistress Rowena has tried to entertain herself with?"He was just as puzzled as the girls who surrounded them. "I know notwhat you mean sire." He said."Why? To teach you to behave like a real man should! This way, she'llthink that her devious charade has been successful! At a later point,we can then reveal that we have been aware of her trickery - and we allshall have a jolly. I now knew it wasn’t only mum that wanted the half a dozen kids. My father had never been able to deny my mother anything. That they hadn’t been able to have more kids must have caused tension, but they had never inflicted us with this stress.Ryan and I had both grown up knowing our parents loved and wanted us. “I have to talk to the lawyer before I can make any promises, dad,” I warned him.He nodded, “We know, that’s why your mother invited him to dinner. He is staying in Ryan’s room in case. You learn do it over time. When you get good, it’s quite subtle. You make excuses to examine something specific — ‘oh, that’s a lovely ring, can I see it?’ and when they do, you get to examine their hands. To be honest, it’s very tedious having to always act that way. It’s easier to be obvious.’ ‘Should you be… you know, saying stuff like that? I thought you guys were never supposed to reveal…well, anything?’ asked Jo. She knew what Mike had been. Or what we suspected he’d been. He’d never.