On the other end of the line, Cora had gone very quiet.
But it was not the quiet of someone who had lost interest or who was distracted by the other things competing for her attention. It was the quiet of someone whose mind had just snagged on something specific and was pulling at it with focused, deliberate intensity.
A name was circling in her thoughts, repeating itself with the persistent rhythm of something that refused to be dismissed as coincidence.
Richard. Richard Harrison. The Harrison family.
She turned the name over carefully, examining it from different angles, and the more she examined it the more it settled into a shape she recognized. Because Richard Harrison of the Harrison family - wasn't that the man that Penelope was with? Wasn't that exactly who Penelope's fiancé was?
The thought arrived with quiet certainty, and rather than dismissing it, Cora followed it directly.
