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us. We still don't have any blood relationship." I pointed out. "My mother didn't inherit any illness. She was abused. There's no concrete evidence that a mental problem caused by social or environmental conditions will be passed on through some genetic strain. That's all ridiculous."
    "I know, but all of it is a scandal nevertheless and it would create all sorts of complications. I just might have to kiss my legal career down here goodbye if such a story ever got out."
    "What of it? You can have a legal career anywhere you want.
    Thatcher," I countered.
    "So you would marry me and leave your mother and Linden the next day?"
    I started to reply, and stopped.
    "You see what I mean, Willow? It's not a black and white issue and not something we can decide instantly."
    "Your mother would reveal all this, tell the world about her disgrace?" I asked. incredulous. "Just to prevent you from being with me?"
    "If this were twenty years ago. I would say never, but what was once embarrassing and devastating has become socially accepted dramatic fodder now. People are on television revealing deep family secrets every day. Shame is like a vestigial organ, no longer necessary. In short, maybe my mother wouldn't do it. but I wouldn't put it past my sister"
    "Maybe it's all not true. Maybe it's a fabrication just to keep us apart. Maybe..."
    "Yes," he said. "Maybe so. I need time to confirm all this for myself. In the meantime. I am asking you to be understanding and patient with me.
    For everyone's sake, not just mine or yours," he added. "Why risk the unnecessary critical attention and gossip? Some of us aren't strong enough to endure any more of that sort of thing."
    I knew he meant my mother and Linden. He
    was right. What they certainly didn't need at the moment was more scandalous baggage placed on their shoulders. What's more, how would Linden react to such news? He despised Thatcher. How would he like to learn that Thatcher and he were related, were brothers!
    And what would such a star,' do to my mother, whose mental problems had once put her in my father's clinic? These were very fragile people who could stand no added weight. What good would I have brought to their lives? Should I be selfish and tell Thatcher I didn't care about any of that? Should I be like his mother and insist on my own pleasure and satisfaction first?
    "This isn't fair," I muttered. "None of this is fair, especially if it's true. Why do we have to suffer for their indiscretions, their weaknesses?"
    "Sometimes there is a lot of wisdom in the old biblical sayings... the sins of the parents lie on the heads of their children," Thatcher said.
    Now he was the one gazing at a commercial jet lifting toward the horizon and another world, somewhere far away from all our pasts.
    "Wish you were on that?" I countered. He smiled.
    "Very often, yes— but," he said, drawing closer, "only if you were sitting beside me."
    "Maybe we'd all be better off if we didn't have the ability to dream." I said.
    "Then where would you psychiatrists bier Thatcher kidded,
    I laughed, and he reached out to take my
    shoulders firmly. For a moment we looked into each other's eyes.
    No matter what the truth is or what obstacles are placed in our way, we'll be together eventually.

    Willow. I swear," he said with such confidence and determination, he took my breath away. He brought his lips to mine. We kissed softly at first, then hard and long, as if we both wanted it to last forever and ever. I couldn't stifle a moan of pleasure, and he let his lips glide over my cheeks and around again to my lips.
    When we stopped kissing, he put his arms
    around me and held me against his chest. We stood there silently for a long moment. I could feel his heart pounding and I'm sure he could feel mine.
    "I've got to get to work," he said in a tight, cracking voice.
    When I looked up at him. I saw his eyes were glossed over with tears.
    "Okay."
    "I'll see you every moment I can. For a little while, we'll be