Izzy reached the gate leading to the driveway and stopped. Roy took her hand and squeezed it.
"I've never been closer than this," she whispered slowly. She gulped. "What if he doesn't really want to know that I'm the spy he's paying to follow his daughter? What if he doesn't like me? What if this is a trap? What if... What if he's not at all the man I thought he was?" Her words came in a short, gasping rush.
Roy felt her grip tighten. "Are you scared?" he whispered to his older sister.
She turned to him with wide eyes. "Terrified," she answered. "Let's go."
Together, they crossed the threshhold onto the property of Gordon DuPries.

A tall, bland-faced butler answered the door.
Izzy spoke first. "Mr. DuPries is expecting us," she declared nervously.
The butler eyed them both dubiously. "And whom shall I announce?" he asked, not yet letting them into the house.
"My name is Izzy—" she glanced at Roy, "—Harper, and this is my brother Roy." When the butler did not react immediately, she added, "Mr. DuPries knows me as The Ghost." As soon as the words left her mouth, she heard how pretentious and awkward they sounded.
The butler finally backed away, opening the door as he retreated. "Very good; right this way, please."

Izzy would not let go of Roy's hand as they stepped into the foyer. She gazed around and gasped.
"I never dreamed a house could look like this!" she breathed.
Roy smirked; he'd felt the same way visiting Thea at her home.

The butler led them to a spacious study amply lit by bay windows on two sides.
"The guests you requested, sir," the butler announced. "The Harper children."
The tall office chair behind the desk rotated, and Roy and Izzy came Dave to face with Gordon DuPries.
He smiled at them. "I am glad I could make the acquaintance of some of my daughters rescuers," he said. "Come," he gestured over to a grouping of plush chairs and sofas, "Have a seat."

Izzy and Roy shared a love seat while Gordon took the armchair at the corner. He seemed especially focused on Izzy.
"So this is the money I pay to keep my daughter safe when she goes to school," he mused. His eyes twinkled as he chuckled, "I guess you proved your mettle this week, Madame Ghost!" He transfered his gaze to Roy, "And you say this is your brother?" He extended his hand, "And your name is—"
"Roy," he took the man's strong hand and shook it firmly.
Gordon smiled. "Roy and Isabella," he mused.

Roy wondered if he was referring to their parents, but Izzy was shell-shocked.
"H-h-how..." she gasped, "W-what did you say?"
Gordon's smile was jovial but not unkind. "That's your full name, isn't it?" he asked her.
Roy thought if his sister opened her eyes any wider they would just pop out of her head. She could barely get the words out. "How the heck would you know that?"

Gordon gestured to the wall directly in front of him, to the siblings' right. There was a small fireplace, and above the mantel, a portrait of Gordon and his wife. He didn't understand the significance, but Izzy clapped both hands over her mouth.

"Oh my g—" she couldn't make another sound for several minutes. When she did speak, it was single words and disjointed sentences. "But that's—No way! It's her! I never—" she blinked owlishly at Gordon. "But then... If you knew... Then hiring me to shadow Gerry—"
"Was just an excuse to keep tabs on you," Gordon finished. "I'm afraid so. I wouldn't have thought that having another girl made any difference, but she was strangely adamant about this one."

Roy looked from Gordon's calm face to Izzy's red one. "What's going on?" he asked. "Who is she?"
"That woman," Izzy answered slowly, "Mrs. DuPries—"
"Helen," Gordon supplied tenderly.

"She cared for me from the day I was born because my real mom couldn't. She raised me till Roy came along and took me to live with him and—" she glanced at her half-brother, "Your mom." Suddenly Izzy had tears in her eyes. Her chin trembled. "She died a few years back, but if I had known her—"
"It's all right," Gordon took Izzy's hand and held it comfortingly. "She knew about you, and knew that there was no way you could have known otherwise. Before she died, she gave me something and asked me to pass it on at the proper time." Gordon turned to the little table, opened a hidden drawer, and withdrew a long white envelope. There was a single page covered in delicate, looping handwriting.

Dear Isabella—
If you're reading this, two things are true: I am gone, and Gordon is a good man to honor me and keep my wishes even after my death. There is one secret that I've kept for all these years that you have to know. Now you will learn who your mother was.
You remember that free clinic on Garrity Street? That was where you were born, where your mama worked. Everybody called her Miz Becca. She started the clinic, and ran the thing till that sad day when those hoodlums took her life. But about a year before it happened, she met Roy Harper. They met, they liked each other, and one weekend when she'd had a fight with her husband, he kept her company for a few nights.
It came about a few months later that she stopped by my house and told me Roy had given her a baby, said she wouldn't be able to keep it a secret at home, so she wanted to spend a few months in the Glades while her husband was off on some business trip and her son was away on vacation and would never know. She had the baby at her own clinic, and gave it to me to care for and nurse. I raised you like my own child, and Becca would check on you during regular visits. Your mama named you Isabella, but I always called you Bella, cause it meant pretty, and you was beautiful. By and by, when Becca got gunned down, you was not yet two year, and Roy got it in his head that he wanted to be a daddy to his little girl. I told him Miz Becca done asked me to care for the baby, not the baby's daddy, and that if he wanted to live with the baby he was gonna have to take her away and find another woman to care for her. So he did, and I never knew what became of you after that. I met Gordon in college, and we married, but I never forgot about my first child, the baby of the Glades. I had Gerry about a year later, and I started planning how to find you. By the time I knew you'd left Roy's, you were completely gone. I kept searching the Glades, and then I found somebody who looked just like my friend Becca, and that was you. I convinced Gordon to hire you to protect our daughter, but really, what I always wanted was to give you a place to belong, Bella.
So that's the truth; you are Isabella Elena Merlyn-Harper, daughter of Rebecca Merlyn and Roy Harper, and I love you.
Helen DuPries