Chrysander flinched. She was right. He hadn’t asked. He’d judged and condemned her.
“I was stunned. I still don’t understand. I’d never even seen the papers he threw at me. I don’t know why he thought I took them or how he could even think such a horrible thing.”
The tears he heard in her voice felt like little daggers to his chest. The tension grew until he felt he would explode. Dread skated up his spine. What had he done?
“And then…” She broke off as sobs took over.
There was another long period of silence as the therapist murmured words of comfort to Marley.
“Tell me what happened next, Marley.”
“I left the apartment, but I knew I had to come back the next day after he’d calmed down so I could make him see reason and tell him I was pregnant. I felt if I could just have the chance to talk to him that he would see what a mistake it was.”
“And what happened?” the therapist asked gently.
Chrysander pushed against the door, his body tense with anticipation.
“A man pulled a bag over my head and forced me into a car. I was taken to another place in the city and told that I was being held for ransom. I was terrified. I was pregnant and was so scared that they would hurt me or my baby.”
Chrysander’s hands curled into fists as he fought the rising rage within him.
“They sent two ransom demands,” Marley whispered. “He refused both. He left me there. Oh God, he left me to those men. I wasn’t even worth half a million dollars to him!”
Sobs ripped from her throat as she dissolved into tears. Chrysander stood in stunned disbelief. Mother of God. He’d never received a ransom demand. He hadn’t! His stomach boiled as acid rose in his throat. He turned and laid his forehead against the wall and brought his clenched fist to rest a few inches away. He felt wetness on his cheeks but made no move to wipe it away.
A few moments later, the therapist eased out of the bedroom and looked at Chrysander. He expected condemnation in her eyes but saw only a faint sympathy.
“I’ve sedated her. She was nearly hysterical. She needs rest above all else. Her reality is very painful, so she retreats. That same self-preservation is what prompted her amnesia. Now that she no longer has that protective buffer, she struggles to cope in the best way she knows how. Be gentle and understanding with her. Don’t push her too hard.”
She patted him on the arm as she walked past.
“Call me if you need me. I’ll come at once.”
“Thank you,” Chrysander said hoarsely.
When she left, Chrysander turned and shuffled farther into the sitting room and sagged onto the couch.
“Dear God,” he said bleakly.
“I heard,” Theron said with a grimace.
“She never stole anything.” Chrysander closed his eyes and dragged a hand through his hair. “Theos.I never got a ransom demand. She thinks…she thinks I left her to those animals, that I didn’t care enough to pay half a million dollars for her return.”
Theron put a comforting hand on Chrysander’s shoulder. “There is much we need to investigate.”
Chrysander nodded. His thoughts hardened as he turned from the anguish over Marley’s revelation and forced himself to play back the events of that night.
The realization, when it came, was so startlingly clear that he cursed himself for not having pieced it together before. He’d been too angry, too wounded by what he perceived as a betrayal by Marley.
“Roslyn,” he said tersely.
Theron raised a brow. “Your assistant?”
“She was there. Just before I found the papers in Marley’s bag. She must have planted them.”
Another thought occurred to him, one that sickened him and made him want to empty his stomach. Any ransom demand would have gone to his office. His residences were highly guarded secrets. Marley had said that he’d ignored ransom demands, but now he realized they could have been delivered and intercepted. By Roslyn.
He stood and whirled around to face his brother. “You will stay here with Marley. Make sure she goes nowhere and that she is well cared for. I’ll send a physician over to monitor her condition.”
