As Fran turned to walk away, Addison grabbed her sleeve. “Fine, but you do all the talking. I don’t have anything to say to this woman.”

“Works for me,” Fran said, flashing a grin. “Now come on, I’m sure she’s waiting.”

The three women carefully traversed the sections of the sidewalk buckled by the roots of nearby trees. Reaching the last blue door in the row, Fran rung the bell, and within seconds, the door swung open.

“Hiya, Fran. Hi, Millie,” Joanna said through the widest of smiles. “Thanks for making the trip again.”

“No problem, Joanna,” Fran replied, turning to make introductions. “Joanna, this is Addison Kane. Addison…Joanna Sheppard.”

Joanna was human, and when she went to work that morning, she did it with her curiosity in tow. Taking an earlier train to give herself more time, once she arrived at work, Joanna had every intention of using the open computers in the employee lounge to run an Internet search on Addison Kane. Even though Millie and Fran had given her a few details about the woman, Joanna wanted more, but before one keystroke was entered, she had changed her mind.

There was no need to delve into the personal and financial details of the woman. Fran had already assured Joanna both she and her father would be taken care of in a manner fitting the wife and father-in-law of Addison Kane, so finding out the woman’s estimated net worth seemed meddlesome and crude. It didn’t matter where Addison Kane lived, because Joanna knew the woman’s wealth afforded better than Burnt Oak, and tabloid excerpts about affairs of the past may have warranted a read if Joanna was marrying for love, but she wasn’t. She was entering into a marriage of convenience to give her father a better life. A life that would give him more than two pairs of pajamas, and dinners that would no doubt be cooked rather than reheated; however, there was one problem. Joanna was still human, and she really wanted to know what Addison Kane looked like.

Over the years, she had seen glimpses of the woman on the covers of a few periodicals and newspapers, but there hadn’t been any reason to gawk. At the time, Joanna had absolutely nothing in common with Addison Kane, but if Fran’s prophecy came true, that was no longer going to be the case. So, Joanna did what any red-blooded woman of the twenty-first century would do…she searched the Internet for photographs.