WHAT MOTHERS KNOW

Jarrod quietly said, "I'll send for the undertaker," and left the room.

Heath gave a sigh and stood up from Charlie Sawyer's bedside. He really didn't want to open his eyes when he turned, because she would be there and he'd have to face her.

But he did open his eyes, and she was there, looking at him with nothing but sadness in her eyes. And oh, he didn't deserve that. He hadn't earned that.

Victoria said, "Heath, I'm so sorry."

"No, I'm the one who's sorry," Heath said. "I ought to be saying this to the whole family, but I need to say it to you, privately, most of all."

"I'm listening," Victoria said.

"The thing is – I never knew anybody like you. To take me in and treat me like I was your own son when I was the result of the biggest betrayal imaginable – " He looked at her and knew he had to stop that line of thought right away. "I let my pride get in the way of what you taught me – what you all taught me but especially what you taught me, and even when you said it to me again while I was walking out the door and I treated you like – well, I treated you like you were just somebody giving me a handout. And that was wrong of me."

"It damned well was!" She let him have it. "How you could have even doubted for a minute – "

"I didn't doubt you," he cut her off. "I never doubted you. Once I said I'd do anything for you, and I would."

"Except stay when I wanted you to, because your pride got in the way."

Heath hung his head like an eight-year-old in big trouble. She was so right about that. She was so right to let him have it.

"Do you understand now what you mean to us? And it's not a handout. You earned your place here. You earned your place in my heart and you would have kept it, even if Charlie Sawyer had been your real father. Heath – " She had to take a breath. "You're as much my son as Jarrod or Nick or Eugene. But the question is, what am I to you? I feel every bit like your mother, but is that how you feel?"

Heath swallowed. What to say? If he said yes, would it be a betrayal to the woman who gave birth to him and raised him? If he said no, would it be a betrayal to this woman who took her into her home, her heart, her everything? He looked at her, at those eyes that were tough as nails but gentle as the snow, all at the same time. "You are everything to me now, as she was everything to me then. And earlier today, when I walked out that front door, I betrayed you. I'll never forgive myself for that."

"Oh, of course you will," Victoria said. "This was the first time since you came to us that you really had yourself tested – were you a member of this family or not? You ARE, and you ARE my son, and now you know it."

Heath smiled a little. "You seem more sure that I know it than I do."

"Heath, don't be a prideful dope," Victoria said. "Who did you come to when this man, who you thought was your father, was shot?"

Heath looked back at Charlie Sawyer, lying there dead – in a Barkley bed, in the Barkley house. He smiled even more and shook his head. "You are – beyond belief."

He went up to her and took her into his arms.

"I am a Barkley," he said. "You are my mother."

She pulled away a little. "Then you won't mind what I've asked Jarrod to do."

"What's that?"

"When you walked out of here earlier, I asked Jarrod to do whatever was necessary to make it legal. You are my son, Heath, in every way."

Heath laughed a little. "You knew I'd be back, didn't you?"

Victoria got a twinkle in her eye. "Of course I did. Mothers know everything."

THE END