Page 83 of Between Now and Always

I push my hair out of my face and sit down on the coach, my legs suddenly not feeling so sturdy.

“What’s happening?” I ask and walk to the living room and grab the remote. I turn the TV on and flip to CNN.

“I told you lay low. Now they know where you are and they’re coming for you,” he snaps.

“Coming for me? I’m in Paris. They may be the law in Winsome, but they can’t do anything to me here,” I insist, reassuring myself more than anything else as my eyes scan the featured news items.

The headline says,“Runaway Heiress Found.”

I watch, my horror growing by the second. The segment starts with the clip of me pulling off my wig and wiping off my make up.”

The voiceover reporter says,“She left her fiancé at the altar and was thought to be living in Austin. Turns out, she disappeared without a word to her family. She’s living a new life, with a new identity and a new love.”

It cuts to the kiss Carter and I shared on stage the night of his show. The voice ends on an ominous, “After months of searching and suffering in silence, her family says they just want her to come back home. And they’re breaking their silence to try and reach her.”

“Breaking their silence? About what?” I yell, and turn the tv off, and throw the remote to the other end of the couch.

“I don’t know, maybe about you and Carter?”

My blood boils. “Whatabout us? There’s nothing to tell. Not anymore.”

“You know that. But as far as he knows, Carter is his son, and you’re his daughter. You all have answers that he doesn’t. I don’t think he’ll out himself. I think he just wants you to make contact.

“I don’t have all the answers, Phil,” I rub my temple in firm circular strokes, trying to sooth my blooming headache.

Where the hell is Carter?I look around the suite for signs of him. His phone is gone, but wallet and watch are on the dresser.

All of the questions I’ve been avoiding since Carter and I got back together, the ones I thought I could ignore, have only grown more insistent.

“We know that Andrew Wolfe took you from Susan Kendicott because you’re his son. We know that you and Carter are full siblings. We know that I am not biologically related to either of you.”

“That doesn’t make you any less my sister, Clo. And I don’t want to hear you say anything like that.” Phil’s expression is fierce and I sigh impatiently.

“I know that. That’s not what I mean. Did he and mom take me from someone, too? I mean, I look like her. But I thought I had his eyes. If she knew Andrew Wolfe wasn’t, how mom could leave me with him?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” Phil’s voice is gentle, sympathetic, but knowing.

Resignation and fear settle on my shoulders.

“Because, I’m afraid to hear the answer,” I admit.

“The Elisabeth Wolfe I know eats her fear for breakfast. So, I’m going to text you her number so you can call her. She’s in Geneva. Maybe since you’re so close, you should go see her.”

My heart leaps in my chest and I let out a big breath.

“You’re right.”

The beep of the door’s key card entry being disarmed, makes me nearly dizzy with relief.

“Carter’s back,” I tell Phil, but my eyes are trained on the door, a smile on my face now that he’s back.

Until I see his face. He’s drenched in sweat, dressed like he went for a run. And he looks unbearably sad. He stops short when he sees me, as if he’d forgotten I was here. He pulls his sweatshirt over his head and when his face comes back into view, all of the emotion is gone from his face.

Fear wraps an icy hand around my throat.

Instead of answering me, his eyes narrow on the phone in my hand and his jaw tightens,

“Who are you talking to,” he snaps. I’m so startled by the unbridled hostility in his voice that I don’t answer.

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