CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“I need a break,” I grumbled. My head fell back on the couch, wishing my husband would hurry home with our take-out food. I stared at the ceiling. “They’re all starting to look the same again.”
Jonathan nodded and tapped on his silver bracelet, making the images disappear. “We can wait until tomorrow to continue. It is getting late again.”
I shook my head. “No, we can continue in just a bit. I need to give my eyes a break, though.”
Jonathan stood from the couch and walked to the window. “I have a question for you.”
“Hit me,” I mumbled.
“It’s actually about you hitting me.” He chuckled quietly, grasping his hands behind his back. “Why do you think he did that?”
My lips thinned. “I don’t know.”
“Theron told me your theory. And if you are correct, then that was out of character for Mr. Valentine.”
“Well, unless you know him, and he doesn’t like you.”
He hummed in approval. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. Because even when he poisoned you, and I’m sure that was him, it was all geared toward making you and Mr. Wood mate. He showed that you could be killed, and Alaric took action.”
I raised my brows. “But you… Yes, I get what you’re saying. There was no reason for that.”
“Which means all these pictures we keep looking at are useless. If your theory is right, all the men I’m showing you I don’t know.” He shook his head of white hair, his eyes cast out on the pond. “We’re spinning our wheels once again.”
My stomach growled, but I ignored it.
He stood silent for a long second, and then asked, “Can you think of anyone at all who seemed especially thrilled about you and Mr. Wood marrying?”
I thought about it.
But my answer was simple.
“No, not really. No one outside the normal group.”
Jonathan sighed. “We’re missing something.”
My lips thinned into a straight line. “I can’t think of anything. Why don’t we look at more pictures, even if it’s useless? You never know, I might recognize someone.”
He turned to face me, his brows drawn together. “In a moment. I want to focus. This is what I do for a living.”
“All right.” I regarded him, waiting.
“I want to start at the beginning of your relationship. How did you and Mr. Wood meet? You don’t run in the same circles.”
“I went through Marriage Match.”
His head jerked back in surprise. “Mr. Wood was registered at Marriage Match? He was a perpetual bachelor as far as I knew.”
“I guess he was. That’s the only way they’d have his address. The company messed up the match, though. I was sent to the wrong house…” I trailed off, my eyes meeting his as a thought occurred. “That’s a little convenient and absurd, isn’t it? If you’re looking for how I met him, it was an error in their system.”
“Mr. Valentine has been known in the past to be technically savvy.” He cracked his neck. “Did Mr. Wood check this out?”
“I know he paid them the high bid twice over. I don’t know what he said to them exactly, though.”
“You said that you guessed he was in their system. Didn’t you ask him?”
“No. But, like I said, the address came from them.”
