Page 62 of Seaside Cowboy's Marriage of Convenience

Rather than showing concern, her guest’s green eyes gleamed as she stood. “Strange, indeed. Well, it was good to catch up.”

“Wait! I don’t want to be alone here. Everything’s going foggy.” Kennedy forced words from her suddenly dry mouth.

“You’ll be fine.” Auntie rinsed the cups and plate, then picked up the cupcake box.

“Did you drug me? But why?” Kennedy struggled to keep her gaze focused on the woman she used to love so much. She’d been betrayed before, but this one hurt the most.

The woman shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m told it’s a fast-acting poison, and quite painless. You won’t be able to call anyone, and in a minute or two, you won’t be able to talk. But I’d better stay, to make sure you don’t. You came too close to me and my daughter. I couldn’t allow things to come to light.” She picked up a napkin and wiped the table.

“Why take your own daughter and let everyone believe she was kidnapped?” Kennedy slurred out the words.

She needed Austin. She needed him badly, and not just to lean on. Just because the marriages around her had fallen apart didn’t mean hers had to. Just because people had betrayed her didn’t mean he’d betray her. She wasn’t like her mother who couldn’t love her husband. And she definitely, absolutely wasn’t like the woman in front of her, someone she used to trust so much. She would be true to her husband and love him with her whole heart while that heart was beating.

Be it minutes or decades.

The woman in front of her might be false. And some of Kennedy’s memories of her childhood might be false.

But Austin was true. Their love was true. Their marriage was true. Had she understood that too late? Tears escaped her eyes as she slid from the chair onto the cold marble floor.

“Auntie” leaned against the door frame. “You asked why. Isn’t that obvious? Because my ex-husband would never let Zoey go, especially to a faraway country. He loved her too much. And I wasn’t about to share, either. I, well, I met a charming man on our family vacation in France. I fell in love. He turned out quite resourceful and had access to fake documents. He came up with a plan and said he could get Zoey out in disguise and with a fake ID. I just had to keep her drugged till we were safely out of the country.”

“No.” It was all Kennedy was able to say. She tasted her salty tears. She wanted to scream, to demand to know how Zoey’s mother could do such a thing. But even if she was able to do it, it was no use. The woman had no remorse.

“Yes. If I demanded a divorce, I’d lose everything. I signed a prenup. I could try to challenge it in court. But if things dragged on and your uncle suspected I saw another man, I’d pay a high price. I couldn’t wait. I didn’t plan to do it, but then something happened that made it possible. It all worked out perfectly. Because your uncle felt so guilty for not letting me go with you girls to the beach that day, he gave me everything I asked for and didn’t enforce the prenup. ” Her olive-hued eyes narrowed.

Kennedy tried to talk, but only some weird sounds came out. Finally, she managed, “Zoey?”

“Zoey doesn’t know any of this, and she never will. She has a different name now and a different story.” The woman scoffed. “She thinks her dad was abusing me, then abandoned her, and didn’t want to see her.”

Kennedy crawled half an inch toward her former auntie.

The woman laughed. “You’d be surprised how a loving, hurt mother can rewrite her child’s memories. My daughter thinks you were a bad friend who didn’t care for her at all.”

Meanwhile, Kennedy had cared so much.

Kennedy’s “auntie” glanced at the antique grandfather clock Kennedy’s father had ordered from Germany, one of the few things she’d brought from her childhood home that her “auntie” had visited so often. “Well, I’ve waited long enough. I can’t risk someone showing up here. Oh, and if you hope the door camera recording helps the authorities find me, stop hoping. I’m wearing a disguise. You don’t think I walk around with this hairdo or would have a nose this shape, do you? Bye, forever now.” She slipped on her sunglasses and opened the door.

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