Page 116 of Bitter Secrets

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Bulgaria?”

“You don’t like Bulgaria?”

She didn’t have any feeling about it one way or the other, since she had never been there before. “Can't you give us more warning than what you did today?”

“The sooner I take care of all of this, the sooner we can get back to New York.”

Her eyes flicked beyond him as Sarai laid a blanket across her seat and put on her headphones before she sat. She wished Roth would go to sleep and leave her alone with her thoughts. To avoid engaging him in further conversation, she looked out the window and took in her last glimpse of Denmark. She would be back. Next time, she wouldn’t leave until she’d thoroughly explored everything Denmark had to offer. Maybe she’d try her hand at writing a fairytale… A dirty one.

“It’s fortunate.”

She waited for him to finish his sentence. The long pause was designed to get her attention. She resolutely ignored him and kept her eyes on the view. Whatever he said next, she wouldn’t react to it.

“I wasn’t convinced Thea told the truth at Tuxedo Park.”

She went rigid.

“It’s convenient that you cleared that up for me. Let’s hope she told the truth and Maximus didn’t leave you any other presents.”

Her throat constricted as rage consumed her.“You…”

“Loyalty is a foreign concept to most,” he said quietly. “Of course, Maximus manages to find the one employee willing to risk it all to do his dirty work for him.”

“You have no grounds to talk when you’re neck-deep in your own sins.”

“That may be, but the difference between your father and me is that I don’t use innocents to carry out my bidding. I see to everything personally.”

“Am I supposed to be impressed by that?” she asked scathingly.

“Just pointing out the differences between your father and me.”

He was trying to paint her father in a negative light, so he wouldn’t look so terrible, but she wasn’t going to lose faith. Not yet. Her father was the only stronghold she had. If she lost that, where did that leave her?

“I hired a medical team to tend to Thea. She refused to let anyone stay with her, so they stop by daily to bring her whatever she needs. I already offered her compensation, which she refused.”

“You tried to pay her off.”

“There were no strings attached to the money. If Lyle had convinced her to go to the police, I wouldn’t have interfered.”

“Because you’d pay to have the charges dropped,” she hissed.

He didn’t shrug, but he didn’t need to. He could buy his way out of anything. His impassive expression made her want to launch herself across the table and throttle him. How could he maintain his composure when discussing such matters? Did he really feel nothing? The need to get a reaction from him made her reckless.

She tapped her nails nonchalantly on the table as she said, “I don’t think Dad would have given Thea the only copy he had. I think there’s another.”

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but his placid, “I agree,” made her mouth run dry.

“Y-you think there’s a duplicate?”

“As dependable and cautious as Thea is, I don’t think he would impart something that important to her without having a backup.”

Hope mixed with adrenaline and crushing fear. If Dad left another copy, where would he leave it? The lawyers gave her a notebook detailing everything she inherited. She vaguely remembered a set of keys to several safety deposit boxes, but her father was notoriously distrustful of institutions. He would have made his own arrangements. A personal safe? There were two at Tuxedo Park. One in the library and one in the wine cellar. She had been in both to retrieve papers, and she hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary… not that she had been looking for anything at the time.

“Did you ever wonder why Maximus left that disc with the housekeeper instead of your sisters?”

She looked up, frowning.

“Seems like he didn’t trust them.”

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