Page 62 of Her Inconvenient Groom (French Conquests 4)

“And what about your brothers?” It was Shaundra again, direct as always.

“What about my brothers, what?” Chantelle echoed, not quite catching on.

“Is it possible that they could be behind this?”

Chantelle was shocked by the idea. “Dennis? Tom? No! We spent years of our lives together, ever since my mom married their dad. We had Christmases and picnics and vacations as a family! Things only got bad when our father named me CEO.” She stopped, stunned by the possibilities invading her head.

As the other women watched her face carefully, realization dawned.

“Uh-huh,” Sienna said softly, almost to herself.

“Could it be possible?” Chantelle asked, still in the grasp of doubt. “It couldn’t be, could it?”

“Let’s logic this thing through,” Naisha said. “Let’s try to figure out who was around, when you were feeling your worst.”

“They were at my place up to a few days before I got really sick—”

“Up until Dustin threw them out!” Sienna added with spirit. “As he should have!”

Chantelle felt tears prickle behind her eyes, and her heart seemed to tighten in her chest, constricting into a hard little rubber ball. Images of the years she’d spent with her brothers when Dad was alive—when both Mom and Dad were alive. Dennis dropping her off to school, turning up at the principal’s office to talk him out of suspending her that one time she got in trouble.

They were angry and jealous of her position, but that didn’t amount to hatred. And if it did, if their passions ran high, it wasn’t to the extent where they’d try to kill her, was it?

She remembered then that she’d never had the chance to tell them she was pregnant. Did they find out somehow and became determined to end both her and her baby’s life? It was all very confusing considering Dennis donated a substantial amount of his own money to pro-life organizations.

Chantelle bowed her head and felt two pairs of warm arms encircle her. Jacyn on one side and Naisha on the other.

“We can find out for sure, you know,” she heard Sienna say.

“How?” With a crime as underhanded, cruel and clandestine such as this, it would be impossible to tell.

Sienna, the young woman in whom she had built the greatest of trust, grinned. It was a sneaky, determined, very Sienna-like smile. “I’ve got a plan!”

Chapter 34

“Bail?” Dustin repeated incredulously.

The dour-faced lawyer nodded.

Dustin sat back on the hard bunk bed in his cell, suddenly robbed of the use of his legs. The shock was just too much. After two weeks of waiting to see what would happen, whether his case would go to trial and when, here was this man, accompanied by the same interpreter who didn’t seem to like him too much, and they were telling him he’d made bail. A hundred thousand euros’ worth of bail.

“Who posted it?” he asked.

The lawyer shrugged, and the interpreter gave him a thin smile. The closest she’d ever gotten to a pleasant facial expression in his presence. “Monsieur Spencer,” the woman said in flat tones, “if your plane is going down over the ocean, and your pilot tells you to eject, do you care what color your parachute is, who packed it, or where it was made?”

Dustin shook his head slowly.

“Then, Monsieur, I would like to advise you to accept the bail and get out while you can.”

She didn’t need to tell him a second time. Dustin leaped up off the bunk, dusted off his hands, and allowed the guard to open the grille. He gave one last backward glance at the tiny room that had been his home for way too long and followed the others eagerly out to the processing area. Dustin signed whatever documents needed to be signed, barely reading them. He accepted the envelope with the meager belongings he had on him when he was arrested, and hurried outside into fresh, clean air.

What now, he wondered. He almost certainly wouldn’t be welcomed back at Chantelle’s home. He’d finally been informed that she was alive and still in the hospital, but that was as much as anyone was willing to tell him. His pleas for anyone to tell him more about her condition went unanswered.

He was relieved to know that she was still alive, and that alone should have made him happy. Except there were other troubling thoughts going through his mind. What did Chantelle think of him? Did she think he’d done this to her? Did his wife, whom he loved to the depth of his soul, believe he’d poisoned her and murdered their child?

In any case, Dustin understood that returning to her mansion would be folly. It might even result in him being re-arrested. He would get a hotel. Something affordable where he could bide his time and figure out his next move.

Find a way to go see Chantelle.

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