"What happened?" Penelope asked her daughter, breathless after having run to find where Cora had gone.
Penelope had left her with Grayson for a few moments, and then they both disappeared! Her thoughts had been a mess imagining what could have happened to them.
Did he take her somewhere? She knew that Grayson was only trying to help her—trying to figure out a way to calm her and get her to take the flowers back, but the way Cora seemed to gravitate toward him and react to his attention made Penelope uncomfortable. But she didn't know what to do about it.
Penelope was tempted to just tell her daughter the truth, regardless of the risks. If it went too far, if Cora's affections became too intensely focused on the vampire, that was exactly what she was going to do. She could not stand by and watch Cora hurt herself or her mate without realizing what it was she was even doing.
"I don't want to talk about it," Cora said, avoiding her mother's eyes.