“I saw them together with my own eyes.” Norene propped her head up with one hand, her tone laced with obvious exasperation. She’d never approved of this arranged marriage, and now she was even more reluctant. “If he’s still fooling around with that woman, isn’t he just here to spite me? Even if we get married, and it’s just in name, I absolutely refuse to be humiliated like that!”
Charlotte’s lashes fluttered at Norene’s words. Sensing the turmoil in her expression, Norene asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Charlotte snapped out of her thoughts a moment later. “It’s nothing. You just said your fiancé’s name was Finnick Vinterberg. His last name is Vinterberg?”
“Yeah. I only knew he went by Selwyn, and that he’s the son of the former president of Riverspire Bank. He moved abroad after that. He told me his full name himself.”
Charlotte frowned.
That’s when Norene’s face lit up, as if struck by a sudden realization. “Oh! I remember now—the former president of Riverspire Bank was named Vinterberg. My dad mentioned him once—Neely Vinterberg. Could this Finnick Vinterberg be his son?”
Neely, the bank president…
Yes, she remembered now!
Charlotte’s hands involuntarily clenched, and a fragment of memory flickered through her mind.
It was the day they’d been kidnapped as children. She came to in the back of a van, surrounded by five other kids she didn’t recognize.
Fear kept her silent, but she watched through the window as two kidnappers spoke with a man in a raincoat outside.
[Neely, we’re only supposed to grab the rich kids. Who’s the girl?]
[Exactly! We’re risking jail for this, not taking in strays. One extra kid just means more trouble.]
The man in the raincoat took a slow drag from his cigarette, his face obscured by the hood. [She saw us put the others in the van. If we let her go, she’ll talk. You want to risk that?]
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