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“Mom?”
“What, Sera?” My shoulders tightened. She also never called me anything other than Seraphina. More often, she called both Luisa and me “baby.”
“We need to talk.”
“Maybe in the morning.”
“No. Tonight.” I walked over, picked up the remote, and turned the television off. “There are things we need to discuss.”
“Such as?”
I sat on the sofa, next to her. “Don’t you want to know what progress has been made with our search for Luisa?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then, why—never mind. Look, we also need to talk about Noah Ridge.” She tried to stand, but I grabbed her arm. “Mom?”
“We can talk about Luisa, but I have no interest in discussing the Ridge family.”
“It’s the same conversation. Noah is helping us. I don’t understand where this attitude is coming from. You were the one who said the deal they gave Dad on the winery was a good one.”
“I told you I’m not talking about it tonight.”
“We have to. Noah will be here tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“He wants to look through Luisa’s room.”
“No.”
When she wiggled her arm from my grasp, I stood and followed her into the kitchen. “Mom? Explain this to me.”
“I don’t want anyone going through her room.”
“What if it resulted in them finding something that, in turn, helps them find her?”
She shook her head.
“Tell me what you have against the Ridges. Right now.”
“They stole something from your father.”
“What? Wait. As I said, you told me the deal they gave Dad was fair.”
“This was later.”
“Later when?”
“The night…it happened, Hewitt Ridge took your father’s formulas.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know how your father was. He didn’t believe in computers. Everything was handwritten. Hewitt stole them.”
“Stole what?”
“The formulas for the wines he was developing.”
