Annabell had sworn to never return home after what they had done to her. She'd barely escaped with her life back then, a scared, broke, exhausted teen. She'd run from that hell-hole of a place and never looked back. She'd built a life for herself, gotten a job, went to school, changed her name, worked hard.

And now, ten years later, they'd found her. Someone in that godforsaken town above Portland Maine had found her in Portland, Oregon. Clear across the country. And she'd been summoned by her grandfather's attorney, old Ben Chaffey, to return.

"Why?" she'd asked. "What's this all about?"

"Oh, family stuff," he'd replied. "When can you come?"

"Family? I ran away from that years ago." She shuddered. "I've got a new life now."

"You may have forgotten them, but they haven't forgotten you, the aging lawyer said.

"What do you mean?

"Your grandparents, the Judge and his wife left everything to you. The house, the business, the rentals, the yacht."

"What?" Annie gulped. "Is this a joke?"

"Nope, you're it, kiddo. I hear you went to law school, guess they found out too, so they made you their sole heir."

Annabell Smith who used to be Annabell Van Arsdale back then shuddered. This couldn't be true.

"This can't be true," she said. "They hated me, they blamed my mother for leading their son astray, they wouldn't deign to speak to us..."

"It's all true. Your brother is in for twenty to life, your sister has disappeared, your dad's crawled into the bottle. So you're who they chose."

Annie pictured old Ben Chaffey as she'd last seen him, sitting in his big leather chair behind the huge carved oak desk in his book-lined office on Main Street with a view of the courthouse across the way. The day that he'd handed her the emancipation papers. The day she'd left town for good.

"How did you know where to find me?"

"Wasn't difficult. Your grandfather hired a private eye to find you and knew where you were this whole time. Sometimes he sent you money anonymously, paid toward your tuition. He was very proud of you."

Annie gasped. It was true. She'd actually been gifted quite a bit of money over the years--"I thought it was government grants and stuff, scholarships, you know." She'd always worked on the side for living expenses, but there had been help.

"Oh, that's how he wanted it. It was your grandmother who blamed your mother for driving your dad to drink." He sighed. "Your grandma was that way. Hard-headed to a fault."

"OMG. Well, it'll take me a few days to settle things here."

"I'll arrange for someone to care for things while you're doing that," Ben replied.

"Do you need any money--I can transfer some to pay the bills."

Ben laughed. "There's a positive balance in their accounts." He paused. "Around twenty."

"You'll need more than twenty bucks to pay the utilities, Mr. Chaffey."

"Uhh, that's twenty mil. As in million my dear. Old Judge Van Arsdale was pretty good with money."

Annie laughed. Good wasn't the word for it. He had the first nickel he ever made.

Annie ended the call with a gracious "Thank you, Mr. Chaffey. Thanks for calling," a politeness that masked her inner turmoil.

Could she leave everything that she'd worked so hard for here and now and take on the responsibilities of an old victorian mansion, an estate really with all that went along with that?

Well, she'd find out shortly.

She turned and punched her boss's number.

"Guess what..." she said as he picked up. "Family Emergency."