Chapter 8. Stranger Danger

The bartender had so far heard nothing about the stranger. Her rendezvous is proving fruitless, and it is starting to get to her nerves. At the office, she is constantly struggling to meet up with the activities going on because she has become so engrossed in her quest to find the father of her child. Today is no better. She gazes through the large window, at the cars revving along the street corner. The billboard hanging overhead flashes an advertisement — herself in a navy-blue suit smiling at a camera with her hair coiffed in a severe bun. Her resemblance to Maureen is uncanny in that picture. The sign even describes something about how Croft Incorporation values integrity and places the safety of the people of Grosthe above everything else. An absolute joke.

Her stepmother is not too subtle about their PR damage control. She even forced Lara to do the photo shoot and grant interviews to the entertainment media as well. Her obvious avoidance of the business media, clearly a