Page 169 of Taken Away

The smile faded slightly.

She’d just typed “complicated,” but even that didn’t touch it.

Her entire life had arrived on the porch of a Victorian mansion she’d inherited from an aunt she’d barely known.

The same aunt who had paid for four years at Penn.

The same aunt who had spent decades trying to reach her.

The same aunt who had been murdered.

Aubrey looked out the office window.

Toward the mansion visible through the trees.

Thirty-two boxes sat waiting on the front porch.

Her life.

Waiting to be unpacked.

Home suddenly felt like a much more complicated word.

A shadow moved in the doorway.

Chloe straightened.

“I’ll let you get back to it,” she said, scooping up her empty coffee cup. “Try to take a break before your brain melts.”

She slipped out past the figure in the doorway.

Bennett.

He watched Chloe go, then looked at Aubrey.

“You were smiling,” he said.

“I smile,” she said.

“Not like that.”

He nodded toward her phone.

“Machelle?”

“Maybe.”

He stepped closer.

“Is that Philadelphia checking in?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Boyfriend?”

“No.”

His eyebrow lifted.