Secrets and Seduction: 5 Romance Novels Read Online Free PDF

woman to be treated like that. He was startled to think he’d based her character assessment on the fact she cared about her dead friend.
    Brian poured a cup of coffee and sat at his desk. “Did a copy of the Wentworth’s prenup come in while I was gone?”
    “Yep.” Nick gave Brian a smug smile. He searched through the papers on the desktop. “I read it. It contains a death clause. If his wife predeceases him, Scott Wentworth inherits all her worldly goods.” He handed it to Brian.
    Brian scanned it and whistled. “And her parents’. Very generous. But I still don’t think he killed her.”
    Nick put his feet up on the desk and settled in. “You gotta admit it’s a powerful motive. If he divorced her, he’d only get what he brought into the marriage.”
    “Scott Wentworth came from a wealthy family. He didn’t need her money. I think she killed herself.”
    Nick frowned, tapping his fist against his chin. “If she was serious about killing herself, why risk a slow moving train? She could just as easily have been paralyzed or turned into a vegetable after a head injury. I would think having lived with a paralyzed mother that would be the last thing she’d be willing to risk.”
    Brian sipped his coffee before setting it down. “If she was depressed, she might not have been thinking clearly. She saw the train, thought how she could end her pain, and stepped out onto the tracks.”
    “But Scott Wentworth said they’d just come from boating. Why not simply throw herself overboard and drown?”
    Brian lifted an eyebrow. “Because her husband would have saved her.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “I’m not sure about anything yet. You said the husband said she was on medication. Why not overdose?”
    Nick nodded. “True. If she really wanted to die, why wait until she was in the town where she was born?”
    “Maybe being here increased her sense of loss. Her parents are dead, so maybe that big old house haunted her. Maybe it made her depression worse.”
    “Yeah, and maybe seeing her friends with their children reminded her of the miscarriage.”
    “Marisa doesn’t have children, and she was Carolyn’s best friend.”
    She didn’t have a fiancé now either, Nick added. Out loud he said, “You won’t know anything for sure until you get the autopsy results.” And maybe he’d offer to be the one to call Marisa so he’d get to talk to her again.

CHAPTER 4
    “Can you come to my office at two?” Harlan Overmyer, the man who identified himself as the Easterlings’ family attorney, asked Marisa later that morning.
    She checked her Day Planner and saw she was available. “Yes, but may I ask what it regards?”
    “Carolyn Wentworth’s will. You’re named in it and it’s to be read today.”
    Marisa couldn’t contain her shock. “But she’s not even buried! Why the rush?”
    “Scott Wentworth asked me to expedite the will.”
    Marisa bit down on the expletives she wanted to use against Caro’s husband. “How can you proceed if you don’t know the cause of death? The coroner hasn’t finished the autopsy yet.” Or maybe Nick had forgotten to pass on her message.
    “Mr. Wentworth assured me the autopsy would be finished this morning and that the ruling would be suicide. I’ve contacted the coroner’s office in Montour Falls so that I’ll be notified of the results as soon as they’re in.”
    Marisa ground her teeth together. All this haste was at the least unseemly. “I’ll be there at two, Mr. Overmyer.”
    When she hung up, her mother called to her from across the room where she was stitching one of her designs. “What is wrong, mi hija ?”
    Marisa told her, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. “He was married to her for four years. He’s not spending any time grieving, but finding out how rich he’s going to be. It’s so cold and callous.”
    “Maybe that is his way of dealing with grief.” Her mother’s disapproving expression said she believed otherwise.
    Marisa loved