Penelope was the first one through the door, and she didn't even wait for the SUV to come to a full stop before she was sprinting toward me.
"Alex! Oh my god, Alex!" she shrieked, throwing her arms around me so hard we both nearly toppled onto the driveway. She was shaking, real, violent tremors that made my own trauma feel like a distant echo. "I thought... when that car sped off... I thought I would never see you again!"
Beatrice followed more slowly, her face pale but her regal composure miraculously intact, though her eyes were rimmed with red. She took my face in her soft, wrinkled hands, her touch like a healing balm.
"Poor darling," Beatrice whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "Are you quite alright? Adrian told us everything. To think those men mistook you for the daughter of that senator! What an awful, senseless error."
I froze, my brow furrowing as I looked from Beatrice to Penelope. The daughter of a senator? Oh. There could only be one explanation.
