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“Did she try anything?” Trey asked her.

“No—at least not that I’m aware of. Bullies often fall back when confronted, don’t they? I think she simply threw Collin in with ourfamily. She dismissed him,” Paula added, and some hints of that former temper came through again. “Just dismissed him. She couldn’t do anything about his inheritance—the manor, the business, the money. So she worked with him, but on a personal level he wasn’t important any longer.”

“He knew you loved him.” Deuce looked down the table at his mother. “He knew we were his family.”

“Yes. We didn’t know then about the true facts of his birth, about his brother and the heartless decision Patricia made all those years ago. But he was our family. He was a brother to you, Deuce, and a son to your father and me.

“Now that family extends to Sonya.”

“It would,” Anna agreed, “even if I didn’t like her as much as I do. What’s going on at the manor, Trey?”

“I’ll start that saga by telling you they found another portrait in Collin’s studio. Well, Cleo’s studio now. Lisbeth Poole on her wedding day.”

“Lisbeth,” Deuce murmured. “First Johanna, then Lilian, now Lisbeth. Reverse chronological order.”

“It has Collin’s signature. Like the others, it wasn’t in the inventory. They’ve hung it in the music room with the other two.”

“You know that’s creepy.” Looking around the table, Seth lifted his hands. “Am I the only one here who thinks that’s creepy?”

“No,” Anna assured him.

“Then brace yourself.”

Trey told them the rest, weaving his way through interruptions as his family talked over each other.

“Maybe I should changecreepytoterrifying.”

“It’s actually not,” Trey told Seth. “At least most of the time the manor’s how I remember it whenever I’d visit Collin. This big, fascinating house, with just a little extra. And the extra added, and still does, makes it more fascinating.

“But,” Trey added, “when Dobbs winds up, she packs a punch. And that can be literal.”

“Is she safe there, Trey?”

He looked over at his mother. “I have to believe she is. She matters to me, so I have to believe that. What I know is Dobbs is outnumbered, and not just by a couple of steel-spined women.”

“I want to meet this Cleo.” Ace sent a wink to his wife. “I have a soft spot for steel-spined women.”

“Can we clear the decks for Sunday dinner?” Corrine looked around the table. “I’ll invite them. And Owen, as he’s part of the family, and part of this. All right, Deuce?”

“More than all right.”

“Sounds good to me. And I’ve got to go up,” Trey added, “change for a dinner meeting.”

“With Sonya?” Anna wondered.

“A client thing.”

“Then, unless there’s any other business…” Ace looked around the table. “We’re adjourned.”

In the manor, Sonya set up her laptop on the second floor of the library. She’d worked straight through until six, and knew she’d created the best proposal possible for the Ryder project.

But Cleo’s eye would tell her where and how she’d missed.

As she synced the computer with the screen, Cleo came up the stairs with two glasses of wine.

“For your anxiety, and my enjoyment.”

As if anticipating a show, Yoda already perched beside the sofa. The cat followed Cleo up and wandered the new space before choosing the window seat.