It was the shock of seeing the bot, I told myself -- I'd reacted like a hurt little girl.  But I was grown woman and it was time to start behaving like one.   I wasn't here to let Peter Fancy worm his way back into my feelings.  I had come because of mom.

"Actually," I said, "I'm here on business."  I opened my purse.  "If you're running his life now, I guess this is for you." I passed her the envelope and settled back, tucking my legs beneath me.  There is no way for an adult to sit gracefully in a beanbag chair.  

She slipped the check out.  "It's from mother."  She paused, then corrected herself,  "Her estate."   She didn't seem surprised.

"Yes."

"It's too generous."

"That's what I thought."

"She must've taken care of you too?"

"I'm fine."  I wasn't about to discuss the terms of mom's will with my father's toy daughter.

"I would've like to have known her," said the bot.  She slid the check back into the envelope and set it aside.  "I've spent a lot of time imagining mother."

I had to work hard not to snap at her.  Sure, this bot had at least a human equivalent intelligence and would be a free citizen someday, assuming she didn't break down first.  But she had a cognizor for a brain and a heart fabricated in a vat.  How could she possibly imagine my mom, especially when all she had to go on was whatever lies he had told her?

"So how bad is he?"

She gave me a sad smile and shook her head. "Some days are better than others.  He has no clue who President Huong is or about the quake but he can still recite the dagger scene from Macbeth.   I haven't told him that mother died.   He'd just forget it ten minutes later."

"Does he know what you are?"

"I am many things, Jen."

"Including me."

"You're a role I'm playing, not who I am."  She stood.  "Would you like some tea?"

"Okay."  I still wanted to know why Mom had left my father four hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars in her will.   If he couldn't tell me, maybe the bot could.