“Oh, no. Karmen gave it to you. That’s as it should be. The painting is meant to be passed on. And the giver is the only one who knows when and to whom it should go.” She smiled with love. “She told me in one of her letters that she’d found a very special person she planned to give it to. When you came here all those years ago, I suspected that person was you. She told you the painting has a unique magic, didn’t she?”
“Yes. She said whoever has it will know the right time to pass it on.”
Karmen’s mother gave him a knowing look. “And have you discovered that time?”
“I believe I have.” He glanced down at the painting. “But there’s something you might not know about it. This is an original Miguel Fernando Correa painting. Rosie is the one who discovered it.”
Her expression remained serene as she nodded and said, “I believe he also painted my great-great-great-something grandparents.”
“Ernestina—” He paused. “This painting is worth a lot of money.”
She gave him that serene smile again. “I would be surprised if it wasn’t.”
“Did Karmen know that when she gave it to me?”
“Its monetary value was never important. The painting goes where it must.”
“But I’m sure you wouldn’t want to let it out of your family if it’s been with you for generations. Especially as it was Karmen’s at the end.”
She was silent for a long moment. The only sound was the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall. Finally, she
said, “If the lore is correct, which I believe it to be, it’s been out of the family many times. And somehow it comes back, like it did to my dear mamá.”
He was afraid she still wasn’t getting the whole picture. “A friend of mine recently had it authenticated and valued. It’s worth at least fifty million dollars.”
She put a hand to her pearls. “Oh my. Isn’t that amazing.”
“If you feel it belongs in the family, I want to give it back to you.”
“And if I don’t?” Ernestina held his gaze steadily.
“Rosie and I would use the proceeds from an art auction to fund a nonprofit foundation to help foster children, veterans, and their families.”
“And we would like to do it in Karmen’s name,” Rosie added.
Karmen’s mother was radiant in a shaft of sunlight. “She always told me you were a man with a big heart, that there wasn’t anything you wouldn’t do for your team. I’m not surprised that you’ve found in Rosie a woman with a heart just as big.”
As she smiled at them both, the last of his angst, the last of his guilt seemed cleansed away.
“It’s what Karmen would have wanted you to do,” Ernestina said with a decisive nod. “The painting truly is magic. It has passed through many hands and saved many lives.”
But it hadn’t saved Karmen’s.
She wagged her finger at him. “I know what you’re thinking. But we are not to know its mysterious ways. All Karmen must have known was that it was time for her to pass it on and that you were the person to give it to. Somehow, she was able to see that you would use it for good and not for profit.” Ernestina’s smile was full of the richness of love for her daughter. “Both Karmen and the painting chose well.”
“Thank you,” he said, his heart full. Karmen’s mother believed in him. Karmen had believed in him. And, most of all, Rosie believed in him.
“And let me tell you another secret. No matter who buys it, the painting will still find its way to the person to whom it is supposed to go. You can be sure of that.”
“I am sure,” he said. He now completely believed in the magic.
“Would it be helpful if I were to tell your auctioneer its history?” Ernestina asked. “At least what I know of it.”
“More than helpful.” Evan’s contact at the auction house had said anything they could find out would surely increase the sale price.
Happiness was a warm glow on her face. “It will bring back wonderful memories of my family. We get so busy with our daily routines. But it’s good to look back. And while I’m looking through all the old papers it will be as if my mamá and Karmen and her father are with me.”
While Gideon had lived in misery with his memories, Ernestina lived for those memories. It was a unique, and wonderful, way of looking at life. One he would strive to remember during any rough moments the future might hold.