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everything to Lace.
    “That’s a pretty name. Fleur. It means flower,” he said in French.
    Still, the child said nothing.
    “Fleur, go into the house and change into your play clothing. You can play for an hour before starting on your homework,” she said in French.
    The little girl nodded, took another look at Jarret and ran inside as if the hounds of hell pursued her. Lacey sighed. “I think she’s afraid of you. You’re a big guy, like the man we suspect killed her mother. It may take a little while for her to get used to you.”
    Okay, more surprises. He was used to surprises; hell, it was his job to be prepared and adapt on the turn of a dime, but from his ex-wife?
    He could easily handle an enemy tossing unexpected small arms fire, but a bombshell like this? His temper rose.
    “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about Fleur?” he snapped.
    Lace didn’t even blink. “You’ve been out of my life for a long time now, Jarrett. You don’t know anything about me. And I certainly wasn’t expecting you to drop by for afternoon coffee.”
    Dragging in a deep breath, he struggled to leash his temper. “Your daughter. You’re adopting her.”
    “If we’re going to talk, let’s work. I have to get these crates ready for shipping the marmalade.”
    Lacey went over to a stack of crates and began packing them. He picked up a hammer and helped. Bang, bang . Felt good to slam the hammer down against the nail, get his emotions under control.
    After a few minutes he wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Talk to me.”
    Lacey stopped stacking large empty sacks near the crates. “Fleur is five years old. She’s lived with me for the past year. I already adopted her in this country. What happened to Fleur’s mother is one reason Marlee’s Mangoes is important to me. I met Jacqueline about a year ago. She was a single mother, only nineteen, trying to sell Fleur to me because I was a wealthy American.”
    Jarrett’s jaw clenched. “I’ve heard of that happening.”
    “Her mother had kicked her out of the house because Jackie had an illegitimate child. Jackie was staying at a friend’s guesthouse, but it was only temporary. She begged me to take her daughter because Fleur’s father refused to give Jacqueline child support. He was a wealthy man and they had a brief affair.
    “I gave her a job. I tried to find out who the father was, so I could pressure him, but Jackie refused to tell me. One day she showed up with terrible bruises on her face. She told me Fleur’s father had shown up the previous night, drunk, and then beat her because she refused to have sex with him.”
    The hammer trembled in her hands as she picked it up and turned it over. “I was renovating my guesthouse and promised to give her a safe place to live, but I didn’t act soon enough. When Jacqueline didn’t arrive for work the following morning, I had this terrible feeling. I went to her home. Fleur was sitting on the floor by her mother’s body. Fleur’s bastard father had beaten Jackie to death...and Fleur saw everything.”
    Jarrett’s stomach pitched and roiled as he imagined the horror witnessed by the little girl. “What about the cops?”
    Lacey shook her head. “No one knew the name of the father, because Jackie kept the affair secret. All we know is he was a very big man and Jackie called him Chou Chou . Fleur was too traumatized to say anything other than she saw Chou Chou kill her mother.”
    French for “my favorite.” Not much to go on.
    “I wanted to take Fleur home with me, but she got embroiled in a mass of red tape. The police took her to an orphanage. I spent two months trying to find her because the admission paperwork was misfiled. When I finally found her, she refused to speak. I legally adopted her here. I have her passport and I’m just waiting on the damn visa to get her into the States.”
    She threw down the hammer. “I want to go back home to my parents and give Fleur the opportunity to heal and receive a