Chapter 4

The night before the wedding, Silvia and I were kidnapped at the same time.

"Which one of you is tomorrow's bride?"

Silvia pointed at me without a second's hesitation. "Her! She's Dora Walter!"

The kidnapper dragged the flat of his blade across my cheek and smiled, a dark thing. "So you're the Walter heiress. The woman our Mr. Carver keeps closest to his heart."

He dialed Preston's number.

"Mr. Carver, I've got Dora Walter. You want her alive, bring me five hundred million in cash to buy her back."

Preston's voice came through level, as if none of this touched him.

"Five hundred million is too much. There's no way to pull that in cash on this kind of notice."

"Here's what we'll do. I'll send five million first, you let one of them go, and I'll scrape the rest together for you as fast as I can."

I understood at once what he was doing.

I shouted at the kidnapper, "That other woman is the one Preston Carver keeps closest to his heart! If you let her go, you'll have nothing left! He'll never pay five hundred million for me!"

Preston's laughter burst out of the phone, half-crazed. "Dora, what nonsense are you spouting? Everyone in Charleston knows you're the woman Preston Carver holds closest to his heart."

"That twenty-million wedding ring I gave you is still on your finger, isn't it?"

The kidnapper yanked my hand up. In that moment the bright diamond looked utterly out of place.

"Little tramp, you almost had me fooled."

His palm cracked across my face. My ears rang, my head spun, the room tilting.

A short distance off, Silvia had gone rigid with terror, clapping both hands over her ears and screaming.

Not long after, they took Silvia away.

The next day, the kidnappers were still waiting on Preston's transfer.

He called Preston. "Still owe me five hundred million. How long until it lands?"

Preston's voice was cold now. "Ten thousand. That's the most you'll get."

"Ten thousand? You think I'm some beggar you can wave off?"

"Then kill her, if you have to. My wedding's about to start. I don't have time to sit here chatting with you."

The kidnapper drew a knife and drove it into the table in front of me.

"Mr. Carver, don't make this harder than it has to be. One cut from me and this woman is finished."

Terror closed over me. Sweat broke out across my forehead in a fine, crowding film, and the tears came down like a dam giving way.

I was afraid.

I begged him again and again. "Preston, for the sake of everything we've shared all these years, help me! I swear I'll pay you back every cent when I get home!"

He gave a cold laugh. "Dora, how much longer are you going to keep up the act?"

"Silvia already told me. This whole thing is a show you staged yourself, all so we can't go through with the wedding."

"Five hundred million? Your father could crook a finger and have it. Why come bothering me?"

He hung up without a shred of pity.

The kidnapper forced me to call my father. The butler answered. "Miss, I've been looking everywhere for you! Miss Summers and Mr. Carver had the master put away after all!"

Everything in me went to ash.

Humiliated into a rage, the kidnapper wrenched the knife out of the table and lunged, driving it toward me.