Page 59 of Two Hearts' Ploy

Robin cocked her head. “So why not stay, if you care about him so much? Or find a way to make it work?”

Robin made a good point. Why couldn’t she, Wren wondered? She’d never cared as much about anyone in the past so a situation like this had never come into play.

“I’m not sure if I’d know how,” she admitted. “I never had a real family growing up, and his family is huge. All my parents ever seemed to really want from me was the money that I could bring in,”

Looking somewhat surprised, Robin stilled, her eyes going wide.

“I didn’t know that,” she finally whispered, not seeming to be quite herself.

“It’s a first for me, dating someone who comes from a large family. One of his sisters is upset, because she believes everything she reads about me in the tabloids, I’m sure. And it kind of hurts, to tell you the truth. I’d hate to feel like I was coming between him and his family. I think that’s what I missed the most growing up. I’d have loved to have a brother or a sister.”

“Really?” she asked quietly, continuing to apply Wren’s makeup with a shaky hand.

“Robin? Are you alright? Why don’t you sit down for a minute. You’re looking kind of pale.”

Robin did sit down, and standing, Wren walked over to the fridge, bringing her some bottled water.

“Thank you. I’ll be alright in a minute,” Robin said before taking a drink from the bottle, still looking distressed.

“Take your time, and sip some more of that water,” Wren said reassuringly. “You’re probably about done with me anyway. Aren’t you?”

“Give me about five more minutes. Your hair stylist should arrive shortly with the headdress you might or might not be wearing. They were still trying to decide on that when I arrived earlier today,” Robin said, finally back on her feet. “You’re going to look beautiful today.”

When Robin grinned suddenly, Wren was surprised. She hadn’t realized that she was so pretty. There was something about her eyes…

“You’ll be the hottest looking mermaid anyone’s ever seen.”

Wren snorted. “It’s like – where do they come up with this stuff?”

“I know,” Robin agreed.

And then they giggled.

* * *

Wren looked like a water goddess out there on the lake, Jeff decided. With quite a bit of cleavage clearly visible, she was wearing a glittering blue-green combination gown with a wet suit that clung to her body like a second skin. She had on some kind of strange looking headdress over glossy dark hair, slicked back from her face. All kinds of special effects were being filmed out on the barge, and there were spurts of water popping up around her like a sperm whale was swimming in the vicinity.

Grinning, Jeff couldn’t help but wonder what they were planning on doing with the footage.

Later that night, they celebrated with the crew members, musicians and everyone else associated with the production. Jake still had a bunch of eyes on her, which might have been why no one made a move to come close to Wren, except those of them who were directly involved with the filming.

But before they left to return home, when Wren returned to the trailer to clear out her personal belongings, a familiar small black envelope was resting on the dressing table.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“If someone has plans for hurting Wren, they’re sure taking their own sweet time,” Jeff muttered when they spoke with Jake the following morning via Facetime.

“When I hired so much security to watch over her, I knew it would probably be off-putting. But I didn’t want to see any issues during the production. It was better for her to get all the filming done,” Jake said reassuringly. “We’ve still got close eyes on her, but everyone will be better about remaining in the shadows. We know that whoever’s been harassing her is here in town because of the note. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out who.” Jake heaved a sigh. “Wren? You’d better sit down. In the course of the investigation, I discovered something that’s probably going to hit you hard.”

“You’re scaring me Jake,” she murmured, following his advice and taking a seat beside Jeff at the kitchen island.

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing that I found out – I’ll have to dig deeper – but it could definitely have something to do with the threats to your life.” Jake grimaced. “I’ll just come right out with it. I’m not sure if your father was aware of this or not when he separated from your mother. She was pregnant, Wren. I thinkyou might have a sibling out there somewhere that may or may not be your father’s child.”

Wren’s jaw dropped open.

“Who knows? That sibling could have a grudge. But then again, maybe something else is going on here. If someone knows they’re related to you, why haven’t they contacted you? And why would your mother have dropped out of your life and raised another child on her own?”

Shaking her head, Wren finally spoke. “I’ve always wondered why Mom didn’t try to get some kind of settlement from me, even after Dad got custody.”

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