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Once Hawk knew her sister’s name, he’d learned quite a bit more about her. She was a model, successful, but not with supermodel status. Which was why Ellie had never seen her on the cover of any major magazines. Amber did mostly fashion shoots and trunk shows with a few commercials. Ellie’s lack of public profile had contributed to the fact that no one had ever latched onto her resemblance to a fairly successful model.
In addition, Amber had grown up in a small town in Southern California with her mother, Helen Taylor. Father deceased. Or supposed father. She’d only recently moved into international modeling circles and at twenty-four, her career was only a few years from peaking.
She didn’t date much and her current relationship with Miguel Menendez was the first evidence Hawk could find of her living with a lover. There was no evidence of a formal adoption, but that had been expected. What had not been expected was that she was living under the identity of the baby daughter Helen Taylor had given birth to.
A baby who had been born premature and died soon after birth despite the best efforts of the doctors at the time.
“I don’t want the authorities brought in on this right now, Hawk.”
“I didn’t think you would, Miss Wentworth.”
“You aren’t going to tell my father you’ve found her, are you?” She wasn’t sure how she wanted to deal with the information, but she didn’t want to risk another shock that could lead to a heart attack.
“You are my client, Miss Wentworth. Not your father.”
“Right. Okay. Give me the information you have on her current location.”
She scribbled down what Hawk told her. Then she hung up the phone. Considering how she was living, Ellie doubted very sincerely that Amber knew anything about her real family or that she even had another family.
Hawk was investigating the circumstances of her kidnapping further and trying to figure out how Amber had ended up with Helen Taylor, who did not fit the profile of a kidnapper in any shape or form. From all accounts, she was a dedicated mother who had sacrificed a great deal for her daughter to succeed in her chosen profession.
Not really sure why she did so, Ellie picked up the phone to call Sandor after hanging up with Hawk.
He picked up on the first ring. “Ellie?”
“I just got off the phone with Hawk.”
“Has he found your sister?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In Spain. She’s been at sea on her lover’s yacht, but they put to shore yesterday.”
He said nothing.
“I don’t know what to do, Sandor. Do I just show up out of the blue with no warning? Do I call her first and tell her I want to meet her? Her mom might very well be her kidnapper. How is she going to feel about that?”
“Tell me everything Hawk said.”
Ellie did, leaving nothing out.
“Her mother does not sound like a criminal. In fact, she sounds very much like a woman who cares deeply for her daughter.”
“I thought so, too.”
“There must be extenuating circumstances.”
“I don’t want to hurt Amber.”
“But the circumstances of her birth cannot be ignored.”
“I know.”
“Perhaps it would be best to wait until Hawk has discovered more about how Amber entered Helen Taylor’s life.”
And that’s what she did, but as each day went by Ellie’s stress levels increased. She missed Sandor, though he called her several times a day. At night, she craved the comfort of his arms around her. And no matter how many times she reminded herself that comfort was a false one, the feeling would not go away. She did not realize how much an integral part of her life he had become until he was gone.
She was the one the pushed him away. He invited her to dinner, to lunches, to the theater, and she turned down every invitation. He never got angry with her. Just reminded her that when the time was right, he was going to corner her and there was nothing she would be able to do to get out of it. The most frightening realization of all was that she wasn’t sure she wanted to. In fact, a big part of her wanted him to take the choice out of her hands and simply show up at her apartment.
But he didn’t and she didn’t sleep, spending both the dark hours of night and the spare moments of her days worrying.
She wanted to tell her dad that Amber had been found, but was afraid of what it would do to him to hear the news.
Hawk called and said he couldn’t find any indication of how Amber had come to live with Helen Taylor as her daughter.
“If she’s not the kidnapper, Miss Wentworth, then I have no idea how she came to be your sister’s mother.”
