The woman drained the rest of her glass, set it on the table, and reached for the decanter to pour another.
Cheyenne waited as long as she could, hoping her mom would expand upon that last bit. But Bianca’s embittered smile didn’t fade, and she was too far gone in her hidden memories to notice her daughter staring at her.
“Mom.”
“Hmm?”
“Who told you?”
“A man who worked in HR.”
“Was he from that prison? Chateau D’rahl?” Cheyenne let her mom refill her own glass of wine too, but she didn’t move to touch it.
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember everything, Mom.”
Bianca finished pouring, then set the decanter down and froze. “We’re having this conversation, Cheyenne. We opened the only Pandora’s Box I’ve had to deal with personally. The insinuation I’d keep more from you after going down this road is frankly insulting.”
“I’m sorry.” You’re walking a fine line now, Cheyenne. Just keep her talking. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”
“I know.” After a few more seconds of contemplative silence, Bianca reached out and settled her hand on her daughter’s thigh.
Cheyenne opened her hand, and her mom laced their fingers together for a brief and rare moment of taking comfort from her daughter instead of the other way around. “I can’t tell you the name of the man who came to explain it to me or who he worked for or how they found us, but what he showed me was enough proof to change the course of every decision I made after that.”
“What did he show you?” It came out as a strained half-whisper.
Bianca released her daughter’s hand, patted Cheyenne’s thigh one more time, and scooted the patio chair away from the table to stand. “The same thing I’m about to show you.”
Chapter Thirty
“Maybe I waited too long. Maybe I hoped you’d forget about the whole thing and let sleeping dogs lie.” Bianca picked up her refilled wine glass and drained half of it in one gulp. “There’s a fine line between confident surety and dreaming.”
“I’ve heard.” Cheyenne stood slowly as her mom cast her an unamused glance. “From you.”
“Yes, well, if you ever have your own children, Cheyenne, you’ll find there’s nothing as effective at revealing all the flaws you worked so hard to cover up. Maybe even the ones you thought you’d eradicated.” Bianca stepped toward the sliding doors into the house. She pointed inside. “It’s in my study.”
“Okay.” Forgetting her wineglass, Cheyenne turned to follow her mom.
Bianca stopped when Eleanor came bustling through the back room toward the veranda, touting another bottle of wine and her own wineglass and bubbling with excitement.
“Oh.” The housekeeper frowned at her employer before glancing at Cheyenne. “I thought I still had plenty of time.”
“We’re not finished yet, Eleanor.” Bianca nodded and stepped past the other woman. “You’re welcome to join us if you like. If you never mention a thing you see or hear to anyone else for the rest of your life. Including me.”
Eleanor blinked as Bianca stepped toward the north wing of the lodge. The housekeeper shrugged and endowed Cheyenne with a conspiratorial grin. “Sounds delightful.”
The halfling snorted. “You haven’t changed at all.”
“Why, thank you very much. We’re heading into the study, then?”
“I guess so.”
Eleanor nodded at the patio table. “You can’t forget your glass now, Cheyenne. She had that look in her eye.”
There wasn’t any point in trying to downplay the type of mood Bianca Summerlin was in and would probably still be in for a day or two after Cheyenne went back home. “Yeah, I saw the look.”
Just as she reached for her glass on the table, her phone dinged in her pocket. Cheyenne stopped to pull it out and check the notification. “Whoa.”
“Everything okay?”
“Uh, yeah.” Cheyenne read the message from Todd.
Looks like your hounds pulled up enough info to flag my system for a possible threat. So thanks for giving me a reason to double-check my security. I’m totally ready to hand them back.
Her programs had gone through every round, which meant she now had GPS coordinates for all four secret IP addresses—hopefully—and if nobody was lying in their own encrypted messages, a location for this giant underground meeting later tonight. “Eleanor, has the wi-fi password changed?”
“Not that I’m aware of, no. You have some extra schoolwork to take care of?”
“Something like that.” Cheyenne stuck her phone back into her pocket and headed for the door and her backpack lying on the stone slab of the veranda. I can’t open this stuff here. If anyone finds that connection between the person digging around in their trash and Bianca Summerlin, they’ll know exactly who I am.
She slung her backpack over her shoulder and wrapped Eleanor in another tight hug. The housekeeper chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’re this excited about being able to do your homework at home.”
“Is it still called homework in grad school?” Cheyenne gave the woman a thin smile. “Look, I have to go.”
“Oh.” Eleanor gazed longingly at the unopened bottle of wine and shrugged. “I’m sure your mother won’t have any reservations about sharing this with me, then. At least it was good timing.”
“Yeah, there’s that. I’ll, uh, I’ll come back later, and we can sit down, all three of us, okay? Sorry. This wasn’t planned.” Cheyenne stepped through the sliding door with an apologetic shrug. “I promise.”
“Well, then, we’ll hold you to it. You’ll go tell her goodbye?”
“What kind of daughter would I be if I didn’t?” Cheyenne turned and hurried through the living room toward the far end of the house and her mom’s study. Neither she nor Eleanor felt the need to mention that Cheyenne had left plenty of times without saying goodbye, and most of
