The Devil's Daughter (Hidden Sins #1)(20)

It took a grand total of ten minutes for her to become unbearably bored. She’d never been good at sitting on her hands when there was work to be done, and with nervous energy thrumming just under her skin, that was doubly true.

She peeked out the door, but the foyer was just as empty as the chapel. Apparently Joseph was confident she’d do as she was told. She snorted. Obviously he didn’t remember her as well as he seemed to think.

The hallway directly across from the chapel led back to what used to be the classrooms, but it was eerily silent, so she figured that must have changed. Curious, she headed that way on silent feet. The first room used to be designated for grade school–age children, but now it held several adult-size desks with new computers and corded phones. There was no one around, but the scrawled writing on the giant whiteboard indicated this was the working command center.

Around eight years ago, Martha had taken her weaving business countrywide. Alpaca products were trendy, and their popularity seemed to be growing as time went on. While the majority of Elysia’s property was designated for growing plant-based things, they had fields upon fields that had been converted for the alpacas. Eden had seen the tax records of their earnings—or what they claimed were their earnings. She wasn’t stupid enough to think they’d reported every penny brought in, nonprofit or no.

Business was good. That was for damn sure.

But she wasn’t here for their tax records. If that girl had been killed by someone in Elysia, she very much doubted it had to do with money. Ruling out that motive completely would be foolish, but for now she would focus her attention in other directions.

As she moved farther down the hall, a soft humming sounded from the next room. Eden hesitated, but then figured the worst that could happen was someone would report that she’d wandered off—something she wasn’t exactly trying to hide at the moment—and poked her head into the room.

A woman scrubbed at the wooden floor with a hand brush that meant the job would take hours. A mop would have made more sense, but Eden had intimate knowledge of this particular punishment. Fingers rubbed raw from the chemicals in the soap, shoulders and back seizing up because of the hours spent hunched over.

She wanted to shake the woman, to tell her that nothing she’d done could have been deserving of this punishment, to yell that this was abuse and anyone who claimed otherwise was a goddamn liar.

She didn’t do any of that. She just stood there until the woman sensed someone watching and looked up.

Recognition rolled over Eden, and she gasped before she could stop herself. “Beth?”

“Eden!” Beth dropped the brush and lunged to her feet, only to stop short. “Sorry. I know it’s been a long time.”

But Eden was already moving, pulling her into a hug. Beth had always been petite, but she felt downright frail now. Breakable. That didn’t detract from the strength of her hug, though. She kept hold of Eden’s shoulders when they stepped back. “Martha said you were home, but I was almost afraid to hope.”

“I’m not home.” She hated the way the other woman’s face fell, but she thought a lie would have been more damaging. “But I will be visiting a bit for now.”

Beth’s smile returned, practically lighting up the room. She had an ethereal beauty, with her pale skin and white-blonde hair that Eden had thought she would outgrow. Instead, age had only sharpened it, giving her the look of some otherworldly being who’d wandered into the room. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” To her surprise, it was true. If she’d had one friend growing up, it was Beth, though Eden had never made the mistake of assuming their friendship would take precedence over Elysia.

Her gaze fell to Beth’s left hand, and she froze. “You’re married?”

“What? Oh, yes.” She beamed. “Almost ten years now. Jon and I are very happy.” Her gaze fell. “We haven’t been able to conceive yet, though.”

Eden wasn’t going to poke at that. She was too focused on the idea of Beth marrying Jon. His mother had brought him into Elysia when he was ten, but when she left six months later, she’d left him behind. He’d always been quiet and restrained to the point of being antisocial, something she identified with thoroughly at the time—still did, if she was honest. She vividly remembered meeting his gaze over the heads of the bowed Elysian subjects during one particularly brutal sermon and seeing him roll his eyes.

It blew her mind that he’d stayed, let alone that he’d stayed and married Beth, whom he’d never shown the least bit of interest in. At my mother’s command, no less.

She did some quick math. “But that means you were married—”

“On my eighteenth birthday.” Beth’s smile never wavered, her face giving no indication that she was anything but elated by that turn of events. “It was a very beautiful ceremony.”

She gritted her teeth, trying to decide if she should pursue it, but ultimately Eden couldn’t help herself. “I didn’t realize you and Jon were dating.” They hadn’t been—she was sure of it. Beth wasn’t capable of lying, let alone to her best friend. If she’d been seeing Jon, Eden would have known about it. Hell, she would have sworn up and down that Jon would take the first bus out of Clear Springs on his eighteenth birthday.

Apparently she’d been wrong on both counts.