Kathy's eyes showed she wasn't convinced yet.
"See it this way," he continued. "She suspected she didn't have much time left, so she had to skip the detour and go straight to the point. And the point was, I now believe, that, knowing you and knowing me, she thought there was a chance for us to be friends. Only she had to arrange everything quickly, and awkwardly, due to her illness. And she probably used the wrong words. But don't you doubt that behind those words there was true friendship."
"I want to believe that, Jesse, but…"
"I know, I know. And I want to be completely honest with you. Take care of Kathy sounds condescending, and I took it as a favor she was asking from me."
She shook her shoulders and hands meaning See? "But I'm telling you that now I'm positive I got her wrong, just like you have. She surely just wanted us to meet."
That rang a bell.
"Don't you think that's possible?" he went on. "That in the haste of her circumstances she had to speed everything up?"
"It is possible," answered Kathy after a while.
"So we agree. And you're not angry anymore."
"I guess Mrs. Sloan deserves I think highly of her," she said with a hint of a smile.
"So it's settled."
"Is that all the mystery you were referring to?"
Jesse caught a mouthful of air and then let it go slowly.
"No. In fact, it is not.
Eight years ago… No, I'll have to go further back.
My mother found out she was pregnant shortly after breaking up with her boyfriend. She was resentful, he'd gone away, so she never told him. We lived at my grandparents' house all our lives. I wasn't told about my father - I suppose my mother was waiting for me to ask, which never happened. And then one day, eight years ago, she told me it had come to her notice that he'd recently passed away. I guess she thought I should know at least that. All the curiosity I hadn't experienced during my childhood or youth rose, and I felt the need of seeing something related to him - my mother didn't even have a picture -, so I travelled to the address we were told was his last, and…" He looked at Kathy wondering if she'd already guessed the denouement." It turned out he was Mrs. Mary Anne Sloan's second husband."