Page 139 of Vacation Friends

“Yes, you kind of are, aren’t you?” Amusement lilted in Adrienne’s voice. “I think you got those from your dad.”

His gaze darkened. “Did you bring us all the way out here so you could insult me?”

“No, I didn’t. But isn’t it kind of funny that we have the same ears?”

“What?” Josh’s forehead wrinkled.

Maddie sucked in a breath. What was she talking about? Was she implying . . . ?

She shifted and glanced over her shoulder.

The woman still had the gun raised, but with her other hand, she touched a ruby necklace at her throat.

“Adrienne?” The word croaked from Maddie.

All the amusement left her gaze. “I don’t expect you to understand because you weren’t a part of this whole mess. You were just a bystander here.”

“You’ve lost your mind,” Josh said. “You need to let us go.”

Maddie really wished he would stop saying things like that.

“Thirty years ago, your dad fell in love with a beautiful woman named Cecilia who worked in a department store in New York City.”

“No, you’re wrong. He married my mom thirty years ago.”

“Exactly. That was part of the problem.”

Maddie glanced at Josh and saw some of the cockiness disappear from his face, replaced by surprise.

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course, you don’t,” Adrienne snapped. “You’ve never been as smart as your dad, and you know it.”

“I’ll have you know, I graduated at the top of my class from MIT.”

“Maybe. But that still doesn’t make you your dad. I think you know that. You knew you were at risk of not taking over his company because you weren’t good enough.”

“I’m so confused,” Maddie said. “Some woman named Cecilia dated Joshua’s dad thirty years ago.” Then the realization hit. “Wait . . . is Cecilia your mom?”

She grinned.

“In other words, his dad had an affair,” Maddie continued. “You’re Josh’s half-sister, aren’t you?”

“Bingo!” Adrienne nodded. “Finally, somebody gets it.”

“You’re my half-sister?” Josh repeated, practically gawking.

“Look at him. He had no idea. Go figure. Not very astute, are you? I told you that you weren’t that smart.”

Now that Adrienne mentioned it, Maddie could see a slight resemblance.

“Okay,” Josh said. “So you’re my sister. I had no idea that you existed. It’s not as if I was trying to ignore you or pretend we weren’t related. I didn’t know.”

“I know. I don’t really care about any kind of relationship with you. Don’t be ridiculous. You’re so pretentious that being around you is worse than being stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean full of people with the runs.”

In other circumstances, Maddie might laugh at that. But not now. Not with her life and Josh’s life on the line.

“So why are we here?” Josh asked.

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