"I mean that Miles wasn't my parents' choice for me." She smiled faintly at Jake's shocked expression. "Oh yes, there was quite the scandal when I chose the ambitious young shipping executive over the banking heir my family had selected. My father threatened to cut me off completely."
Jake stared at his mother, seeing her in an entirely new light. "I never knew."
"There are many things you don't know about me, about us." Emma stood, smoothing her impeccable outfit. "Your father wasn't always... like this. Success changed him, hardened him. Made him forget what it was like to fight for something that truly mattered."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because I saw how you looked at that young woman when she played." Emma's eyes were kind but resolute. "I recognized it—the same way Mil
