Page 119 of Conrad

The television clicked off.

“Penelope?”

She looked over at her mother, who’d gotten up, frowning.

“Are you in love with this hockey player?”

Penelope swallowed. “I . . .”

“Oh, darling. You have to be so careful. Men like Conrad Kingston are after only what they can get from you.”

“No. He’s not?—”

“Just like Edward and Tia. Oh, she barely escaped that tragedy.”

Her mouth opened. “What? Mom, Edward was murdered?—”

“Yes, that was terrible. But it would have been worse if Tia had married him only to discover that he didn’t really love her.”

She blinked at her mother. “What?”

“He was just using her to get close to your father.”

“Mother. Edwardwasclose to my father. He paid for his education?—”

“Oh no, no, darling, that was just the agreement we made with his mother.” And then her eyes widened. “Oh dear.”

A beat. “What’s ‘oh dear’?”

Her mother sighed. “Well, I guess it’s all over now. Inga was a treasure to the day she died. Without her, we might never have found you.”

“What are you talking about, Mom? Found me—wait, is this about the kidnapping?”

“Of course. Inga and Edward were the only ones at home when you were taken. And it was she who found you.”

“Edward found me.”

Her mother shook her head. “Edward only found you because Inga overheard Carmen and Nicolai talking about where they’d stashed you. Inga took you and hid you in the dumbwaiter until we got back.”

That wasn’t how she remembered it. “Edward told me that Dad didn’t want to pay the ransom. That he was negotiating, and he was afraid that Carmen and Nicolai would kill me.”

“Oh no, darling. Of course we paid the ransom. We wired to the account Carmen gave us—but she wanted more. And that’s when your father suspected there was a bigger plot, someone behind Carmen and Nicolai.”

“Why?”

“Because we had insurance on you and Tia, and the ransom demand barely dipped into that. When the kidnappers realized we’d pay it, they asked for double more. Your father thought that maybe there was a bigger plot at play, and that’s when he decided to stall. He feared that someone on his staff would leak the truth to the police, and the cops would lose their chance to capture Carmen and Nicolai and the mastermind behind the treachery. He asked Inga to keep hiding you. He told her he’d take care of Edward for life if she trusted him.”

“Hekeptme in the dumbwaiter?”

“Oh my, darling, no, of course not. We didn’t know where you were until we arrived home and Inga told us. She simply said she’d found you and you were safe. Of course, we sent Vincent to find you the moment we returned home. By then, the second ransom exchange had already happened, and this time, Carmen was killed, along with Nicolai.”

“By the police?”

“No. They were dead when your father’s bodyguard, Vincent, arrived with the ransom money. We never found out who did it, and we never retrieved the first ransom either. That’s when your father decided to assign you personal security.” She caught her daughter’s face. “You just can’t be too careful, honey. You have to know who to trust.”

She did know who to trust. She thought she had, but . . .

“Please, leave.”And“King Con later stated to officials that he and Penelope are not dating.”

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