Page 56 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)

Subject change.

“She gave it to me when she dropped me off. I haven’t looked at it.”

Lenora nods. “Well, maybe you should set it up and see if someone wants to come by. Riley or Caleb…”

“Is that okay?” I ask. “I don’t want to intrude.”

“It isn’t intrusive for you to have someone to support you,” she says quietly. “God knows the whole family was here when Josie—”

I watch her out of the corner of my eye. I don’t want to ask, but at the same time…

“They brought her here?”

“She was cold,” she whispers. “By the time they found her. It was an unusually cold night, so her temperature was too low. I guess you can’t declare someone dead until they’re…”

Warm and dead. I’d heard that on a television show or two.

“Yeah,” I mutter, just so she doesn’t have to say it out loud.

How awful? Knowing they were warming up your frozen daughter just down the hall, and she probably is already dead—but who really knew?

“I’m sorry you’ve had to be back here,” I say.

She waves me off. “It was a long time ago. Robert and I were very different people.”

“Funny, I used to say that about Caleb and me.”

“You should call him.” She presses her lips together. “You’ve been staying with his…”

“Friend’s family,” I supply. “Is he technically a foster, too?”

She shrugs. “Benjamin Asher left behind an odd will, I heard once. It was all Rose Hill could talk about. His disgraced wife and scorned brother.”

My eyes go wide. “What?”

“I’m not too sure about the details—Robert and I were still getting our feet wet in town. My first big job was transitioning the Asher firm over to Prinze Industries, but we were still in the city at that point. After a successful merger, my company paid for our relocation.”

“Oh, wow. So, you knew Caleb’s dad?” And you never mentioned he was dead?

“I only met him twice. Once to discuss his future at Prinze Industries, and the second time when he signed the paperwork.” She shakes her head. “That wasn’t long before…”

“But back to the will…”

“Oh, yes. It was all over town—especially my coworkers, honestly, they’re gossiping fools—that Benjamin had left everything to his son.”

“Are you sure?”

She laughs. “Not in the slightest.”

I mull it over. Taking it with a grain of salt, even if Caleb’s dad had left him most of what he owned, it was still a sizeable chunk. And it would explain his uncle’s fury. And his mother’s… His mother’s what? She’s been missing from the story this entire time.

“I think… I will make that phone call.”

She nods.

I fumble with the phone. My hands are steady now, thanks to the granola bar, and I unlock it with my usual password to find that everything from my previous phone has already been loaded onto this one.

Suspicion gnaws at me, but nothing seems unusual about it.

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