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“Let us allow her to wake up before we begin planning her future residence.”
Anya frowns. “I didn’t say she has to live here.”
The thought had not occurred to me.
Now it has.
I don’t appreciate that.
“Good.”
“But she could.”
“Anya.”
“What?”
I rub a hand over my jaw.
A delivery woman arrives in my house bleeding, unconscious, and completely unaware of the kind of family she has accidentally stepped into, and within an hour my daughter is considering bedroom arrangements.
Levin begins preparing to move Elle.
I step aside, but my attention remains on her.
Suspicion comes naturally to me. It has kept me alive for most of my life.
Coincidence has not.
So despite what she has done, despite the obvious fact that she risked her life for Anya, I cannot afford to accept her appearance without questions.
I look at Kirill. “Find out everything about Elara Bennett before she wakes up.”
His expression becomes serious again.
“Employment, finances, family, previous addresses, relationships, connections to St. Augustine’s, and anything that could possibly tie her to one of our people.”
“Yes.”
“And do it quietly, because until I know otherwise, she is the woman who saved my daughter, not a suspect to be interrogated.”
Kirill nods. “That was my intention.”
I watch Levin adjust the blanket over her before they lift the stretcher.
For some reason, the sight bothers me.
A stranger. That’s all she is.
A stranger who ran toward a speeding car when everyone else froze.
A stranger whose blood is still on the cuff of my shirt because I caught her when she fell.
A stranger my daughter is already asking me to bring back.
I should be thinking only about the person who tried to kill Anya.
Instead, as they carry Elara Bennett from the room, I find myself watching until she disappears from sight.
