Chapter 1
The phone inside Corisandra’s evening bag kept vibrating.
Once.
Stopped.
Then again.
Nessa tightened both arms around my neck.
I did not take my eyes off Corisandra.
“Answer it.”
She swallowed.
“Dorian—”
“Answer.”
Her fingers shook as she opened the bag.
The screen lit her face.
She looked at the name.
Then me.
“Who?”
Silence.
I held out my hand.
She did not give me the phone.
That was answer enough.
I took it.
One message filled the screen.
I’m at the service entrance. If the child isn’t here in two minutes, I leave.
I read it twice.
No destination.
No name.
Just driver.
I looked toward the conservatory exit.
“Who is outside?”
Corisandra whispered:
“Ellis.”
I knew Ellis Vale.
Her mother’s longtime driver.
Not mine.
“Where was he taking Nessa?”
She looked at the floor.
Nessa began trembling again.
I adjusted my hold.
“You are safe.”
Then I looked back at Corisandra.
“Where?”
She finally said:
“Westbrook.”
I knew the name.
A private estate two hours north.
Owned by Corisandra’s aunt.
No children lived there.
No reason Nessa should.
“For how long?”
“A few days.”
Nessa whispered against my shoulder:
“She said till wedding over.”
I closed my eyes.
There.
Not kidnapping in Corisandra’s mind.
Convenience.
Remove the child until the ceremony passed.
Then return her once photographs, introductions, and household positioning were settled.
I asked:
“Why the trunk?”
Corisandra cried.
“She wouldn’t go.”
Nessa buried her face in my neck.
Something inside me became very still.
“You put my daughter in luggage because she refused to leave me.”
“That’s not what it was supposed to be.”
“What was it supposed to be?”
Corisandra looked toward the guests.
Then whispered the truth.
“A clean beginning.”
I almost laughed.
For whom?
Not Nessa.
Apparently my fiancée believed our marriage needed to begin with my daughter temporarily erased from the room.
The phone vibrated again.
This time another message.
Mrs. Vale said the little girl’s room is ready.
Mrs. Vale.
Corisandra’s mother.
So this was bigger than one panicked bride.
Her family had prepared a room.
A driver.
May you like
A destination.
And apparently everyone involved believed I would notice my daughter was gone only after the engagement celebration ended.
