“That’s not funny.”

But it really was, and now that I was out of the shower, I was starting to doubt what I had really seen. Maybe it was just being in a new house or the way the shadows fell?

I turned to get dressed, ignoring the way that she continued to laugh. I went into our new walk-in closet, loving the smell of fresh wood and paint. I heard her get up and pad into the closet behind me. Her arms wrapped around my waist, and I felt her face rest against my back.

“I still don’t want you to go,” she said softly, melting my heart for the millionth time.

“Me either, baby. Me either.”

**

BY THE TIME I ARRIVEDin Los Angeles, I was more than ready to put this part of our lives behind us. Surely this Forrest person would be reasonable and Sutton and I could move on from all of this. The car drove me from the airport into the city center and I took the elevator up to the fourteenth floor.

The building wasn’t unlike something you would see in New York. I could have very easily been going into Sutton Enterprises. A thin woman stopped me as I walked in and I gave her my name. She asked me to have a seat, and it wasn’t more than five minutes before I was escorted back into the office.

Forrest wasn’t as large as I had expected him to be. The man was clearly in his late fifties or early sixties. His hair was thinning, and he had a hard glint in his eye.

“If you have come here to tell me where that bitch has been hiding all those years, I already know.”

I stiffened. “I am assuming you mean your dead wife and not my fiancé?”

Forrest’s eyes narrowed. “I was speaking of Judith, but I heard she had a daughter. If you want money, you are barking up the wrong tree.”

His color was high, and it seemed to me that he was trying to act like the badass that he wasn’t.

“I am here to find out your intentions toward Sutton Landry.”

Forrest rose to his feet. “If she is my daughter, I have a right to know.”

“She isn’t your daughter,” I said flatly. “I knew her father very well. She looks like him and acts like him. She doesn’t have her mother’s blonde, willowy frame. She is dark and curvy, not that it should matter to you because she is no relation of yours.”

“I want a DNA test done.”

“Sutton already had testing done to ensure she was Hollingworth’s heir. There is no need for you to worry yourself.”

“Why did she do it?” Forrest leaned over the desk. “I want to know why that bitch left.”

“Sutton doesn’t know that. Her mother died years ago.”

“She took something from me, something important. I want to go through her things.”

My brows rose. This is the first time I had heard this angle. There was something very off about Forrest and the way he kept coming at me with things. I didn’t trust him.

“Look, there is no reason for you to have anything to do with her. Everything that was left behind has been thrown out.”

Forrest screamed, spitting obscenities.

“I will find out where Judith put it.”

“I suggest you get a search warrant then.” I stood and walked to the door. “Because you aren’t welcome.”